Violence against women with a disability January 2002 Updated in May 2008 The Dutch version of this brochure has been issued as a book with ISBN number 978-90-441-2342-5. Persephone npo Association of women with a disability or a chronic and disabling disease Solvijnsstraat 30 2018 Antwerp - Belgium Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Preface to the second edition......................................................................................................................... 4 Part I “Women with disabilities do not accept violence!” ....................................................................... 5 Outline of the problem Ann Van den Buys................................................................................................ 5 Ill-treatment of women: who is disabled? An Sterkens................................................................................ 6 To file a complaint at court: possibilities and difficulties Wendy Verhaegen................................................ 8 Actions of Persephone Ann Van den Buys................................................................................................. 9 Questions from the audience............................................................................................................................... 9 Part II File: Inaccessible refuge centres.................................................................................................... 11 Problem description .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Letter of 1996 to all refuge and reception centres in Flanders .......................................................................... 11 Letter of 2001 to all refuge and reception centres in Flanders .......................................................................... 11 Letter to Mieke Vogels...................................................................................................................................... 13 Little steps in the right direction ....................................................................................................................... 15 Part III “Handicapped women, victims of violence: what can we do?”............................................. 16 When and where do we find violence? ............................................................................................................. 16 Legislation on abortion, sterilization and sexual violence ................................................................................ 17 Prevention and aid to victims............................................................................................................................ 18 International documents: handy tools at lobbying ............................................................................................ 19 Part IV “And the farmer, he continued to plough …” ............................................................................. 20 Prevention and (service dispensing) aid for victims in institutions, subsidized by the Flemish Agency for Persons with a Disability (Vlaams Agentschap voor Personen met een Handicap).......................................... 20 PAB and PLB.................................................................................................................................................... 20 Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities of the Belgian Senate................................................................ 21 Our incentives for scientific research................................................................................................................ 21 Other initiatives of Persephone npo .................................................................................................................. 21 Part V “Violence in health institutions”..................................................................................................... 23 Problem description .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Networking with patients' associations ............................................................................................................. 23 Networking with the female medical staff and their professional associations................................................. 23 Networking to organize training ....................................................................................................................... 23 Networking with female politicians .................................................................................................................. 23 Networking with women living in institutions.................................................................................................. 24 Networking around topics like principle of life and end of life ........................................................................ 24 Networking collecting data about violence against women in health institutions............................................. 24 Networking creating empowerment processes.................................................................................................. 25 Which training do girls need in order to guarantee their future rights?............................................................. 25 Which equipment should health institutions have?........................................................................................... 25 Conclusion......................................................................................................................................................... 26 Appendix A Useful addresses ...................................................................................................................... 27 Appendix B Selected literature..................................................................................................................... 30 Appendix C The Daphne project .................................................................................................................. 32 Appendix D The UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ................................... 34 Appendix E Persephone npo ........................................................................................................................ 37 Persephone npo Violence against women with a disability p 2 January 2008 Preface Violence against women with a disability is not an easy subject. There is a taboo; people like to pretend it doesn't exist. Especially sexual abuse is kept mum. Women with a handicap are after all considered as asexual persons, not attractive and therefore they cannot be victims of sexual assaults. As if sexual assault is due to being attractive or not! Isn't it mainly an abuse of power?! The negation of these and also other abuses of power is also due to two though prejudices: « Someone who has a heavy spastic paralysis and/or has difficulty in speaking, is likely to be mentally handicapped. So such a person does not really understand what is happening! » One has to insist once more: the intellectual powers and the co-ordination of movements are two different regions in the brain, like a city having different districts. « All these social helpers are really kind people. » In fact they are like anyone else, people. Yes, they are kind. When their motivation is really sincere and concerned. But not when it is – probably subconsciously – based on frustration: « I very often feel so powerless! But … each time I help these persons, I am the powerful! Ha, ha! ». It is crystal clear that in this permanent feeling of frustration lies the great danger of abuse of power. Who is looking for an easy victim, finds it amidst women with a disability; this is even more true, when she is not able to defend herself and cannot go to the police. It would be wonderful if violence against women with a disability did not exist. But, alas, it does exist! At our organization, Persephone, different cases have been registered: ill-treatment by the partner - with a physical handicap as result - ill-treatment by relatives, sexual abuse at the protected workplace, ... Investigations about violence against women in general ascertain that only 20% of violence cases have been revealed. As to women with a disability no official figures are available. But assuming that these women are easier victims than their normal colleagues and have more difficulties in outing their complaints, we can be sure that theses cases known to us are only the summit of the iceberg. This document is meant to bring the problem into the open. When there is a problem, solutions have to be found. This document also provides a summary of what has already been realized in terms of research, prevention and specific assistance. This is very useful for women with a disability, too. In part I and II we will talk about our initiatives, part III is about the European Conference on violence against women with a handicap held in 2001, in which we took part. In appendix B you will find some references to studies and statistics. These researches have been very restricted so far. As these problems have been neglected, systematic and extended research has never been performed. Neither has there