A/HRC/32/44
subjected to forced sterilization or termination of pregnancy or to long-term contraception,
with relatives or doctors taking decisions on their behalf without their informed consent, in
violation of their right to exercise legal capacity guaranteed under the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
46.
Women with disabilities are disproportionately subject to intimate-partner violence,
owing to the mutually reinforcing dynamics of gender and disability.
47.
The Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities has called on States
to guarantee women with disabilities safe participation in matters affecting their lives,
especially in relation to sexual and reproductive rights and gender-based violence,
including sexual violence, matters which are cited in a recent study as high-priority
concerns for women and girls with disabilities.
Women and HIV/AIDS
48.
Women are disproportionately vulnerable to HIV/AIDS owing to various factors,
including gender-based violence and lack of autonomy to negotiate safe and responsible
sexual practices and make informed health-related decisions. Even when women living
with HIV/AIDS are able to access health services, they often face stigma and
discrimination on the part of health-care professionals, ranging from abuse to denial of
services. Laws, policies and practices that prevent women living with HIV from bearing
children through, for example, forced termination of pregnancy and forced sterilization
constitute an extreme form of discrimination.
Women migrants
49.
Women migrants are often at great risk of being subjected by public authorities or
private individuals to all manner of violence, exploitation, trafficking and slavery while in
transit or in detention. These practices can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or torture.
50.
Women migrant workers, especially those in irregular situations, have greater
difficulty in accessing almost all forms of health care, including maternal care, emergency
care and treatment for chronic diseases and mental health problems, because they are often
denied these rights legally and/or they fear arrest and deportation. In some countries, while
legal access to health care for migrant women has been expanded, they still do not receive
needed medical services because health-care providers often refuse treat them.
51.
Even where they are entitled to emergency health care, women migrant domestic
workers are often excluded from preventive reproductive and sexual health services, as well
as gynaecological and obstetric care, because of their status and lack of access to insurance
or national health schemes.
52.
The pattern of physical, sexual and psychological abuse of migrant domestic
workers is widespread. These women are often exposed to health and safety risks without
being provided with proper information or adequate protection. Furthermore, the working
and living conditions of many undocumented domestic workers, which are tantamount to
slavery, and the separation from family members cause serious health, particularly mental
health, problems.
53.
Migrant women may be subject to mandatory pregnancy tests upon arrival in some
countries; if the test is positive, they are dismissed and/or deported. Furthermore, pregnancy
tests can be imposed on migrant domestic workers during the course of their employment,
leading to pregnant women losing their jobs and/or seeking termination of the pregnancy,
sometimes by means of unsafe practices, especially in countries that criminalize induced
termination. Migrant women have been charged with “illegal sexual relationships” when
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