A/67/227 66. Women with disabilities face problems with representation and may fail to comport with society’s view on women’s roles generally, leading to invisibility and exclusion from meaningful participation in society. 52 Women with disabilities may also be viewed as childlike and presumed to be incompetent, which prevents them from reaching their potential as full and equal members of the community. 53 67. Women with disabilities have fewer career opportunities owing to employer unwillingness to provide relevant accommodations; they receive lower pay; and they may be forced to take less prestigious career paths in order to be able to obtain employment. 54 Women with disabilities who have experienced violence are at increased risk of unemployment since the abuser may harass or intimidate them in the workplace, harass other employees or prevent them from going to work at all, as a mechanism of control that can result in loss of employment. 68. Women with disabilities who have experienced violence are at increased risk of homelessness. When women with disabilities attempt to flee the abusive situation (or are forced to leave the home of the abuser, which is another form of abuse), they often lose their homes. Since shelters are often inaccessible, they may have no alternative other than the streets or their abusive environment. Furthermore, the social isolation imposed by the abuser during the abuse results in the woman with disabilities severing relationships with family, friends and other support systems that could help in such situations. 69. Women with disabilities have more limitations on access to sexual and reproductive health care. Often health-care providers see them as asexual, thereby concluding that they do not require certain health-care services. 55 An analysis of the data contained in the World Health Organization World Health Survey shows a significant difference between men and women with disabilities and people without disabilities in terms of the attitudinal, physical, and system level barriers faced in accessing care. E. Normative framework International law and policy 56 1. 70. Early efforts by the United Nations in the 1970s included the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons (General Assembly resolution 2856 (XXVI)), followed by the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (Assembly resolution 3447 (XXX)). Those non-binding instruments reflect an important development in terms of placing disability on the international agenda, but they did not fully reflect existing human rights principles. 71. The Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons reflected a paternalistic medical and charity model of disability, while the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled People adopted a human rights approach as regards equal __________________ 52 53 54 55 56 12-45120 Johanna Bond, “International intersectionality” (see footnote 4 above). Disability Discrimination Legal Service, “Beyond belief” (see footnote 25 above). See Human Rights and Disabled Persons (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.92.XIV.4). Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch, “Disabled women” (see footnote 3 above). Paras. 70-86 are based on: Janet E. Lord and Stephanie Ortoleva, “International norms and standards on disability: an overview of the current framework”, background technical paper submitted to the secretariat of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2010). 17