UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk informed attendees of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council on Monday of the continuous accessibility barriers that people with disabilities face, especially women.
Volker Türk contended that the international community failed to uphold Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that all people are born equal. He identified two categories of risks that technology creates for people with disabilities: the construction of new spaces for discrimination, and the exclusion of people with disabilities from conversations about the design of technology.
According to the UN rights chief, a significantly small number of Member States involve people with disabilities in the creation of e-governance programs connecting governments with the public. Consequently, people with disabilities are restricted from accessing vital services and fundamental rights, such as healthcare or voting. Additionally, only 2 percent of the 2 billion websites are accessible to everyone, limiting access to information.
In addition to the limited access available to people with disabilities, women with disabilities typically face further limitations. Volker Türk brought up an overarching phenomenon of technology being “designed by men…for men” causing women to receive prostheses and orthoses designed for male anatomy. This phenomenon in software technology resulted in “a 2:1 gender gap in internet access in favor of men with disabilities.”
Concluding his address, Türk called for individual and societal efforts that will be “putting people first, prioritizing women, highlighting market inefficiencies, and recognizing the need for economic reforms.” The UN rights chief also encouraged a push for full ratification and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Recently, human rights groups have been bringing to light the lack of accessibility available for people with disabilities in various countries, such as the US, Kazakhstan, and Uruguay. Some of the major human rights issues also being voiced are ongoing forced sterilization of women with disabilities in Europe and inadequate reproductive health rights of women, including women with disabilities.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) does not specifically address issues faced by women with disabilities, but the Committee adopted General Recommendation No. 18, encouraging parties to the CEDAW to provide reports on women with disabilities in their periodic reports.
