A/67/227 14. In recent years, the experiences of women with disabilities have become somewhat more visible. An analysis of the intersection between the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, along with various United Nations resolutions and policy statements on human rights, women’s rights and the rights of persons with disabilities, demonstrates the synergy that exists to foster changes in law, policy and practice in order to ensure the inclusion of women with disabilities in understanding and responding to violence against women. 15. In its resolution 17/11, the Human Rights Council requested OHCHR to prepare a thematic analytical study on the issue of violence against women and girls and disability in consultation, inter alia, with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. The resulting report (A/HRC/20/5 and Corr.1) was based on the submissions received from Member States, United Nations agencies and programmes, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations. 16. The present report aims to deepen the findings of the OHCHR study and further examine the manifestations, causes and consequences of violence against women with disabilities. In addition, the report briefly examines relevant international and regional legal frameworks and provides recommendations. B. Social model understanding of violence against women with disabilities 17. An analysis of violence against women with disabilities must be informed by, and reflective of, a social model understanding of disability, in keeping with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The preamble and article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities introduce the social model of disability by describing disability as a condition arising from interaction with various barriers that may hinder disabled peoples’ full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. Such a perspective does not deny the reality of impairment or its impact on an individual. It does, however, challenge the physical and social environments and the legal frameworks that have a negative impact on persons with disabilities. 18. Many policies operate on the assumption that a disabling condition is pathological and a defect, and not a socially ascribed so-called deficit. 1 The impact of such a perspective is clear: persons with disabilities are to be avoided and/or excluded, as opposed to accommodated and included in the community.1 According to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, accommodation, inclusion and support are the obligated responses to disability, including for families of persons with disabilities. 19. The “gender-mainstreaming, disability-inclusive” approach draws upon a feminist-disability discourse that seeks to challenge dominant assumptions about living with a disability, and it situates the disability experience in the context of rights and exclusions. It also questions the assumption that disability is a flaw or a deficiency. To do so, it defines disability broadly from a social rather than a medical __________________ 1 12-45120 Janet E. Lord, “The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and antenatal screening for disability”, expert opinion prepared for Saving Downs New Zealand, 2012. 5