Forced Displacement of Persons with Disabilities

International law recognizes refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) as populations that are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses, persecution and violence.  Refugees with disabilities, however, face additional threats in conflict and humanitarian settings.  It is often more difficult for persons with disabilities to flee dangerous environments due to mobility issues, which means many people are left behind and must remain in conflict affected regions.  Persons with disabilities may also be specifically targeted for human rights violations, either within conflict settings or during flight.  Lastly, conflict situations tend to increase the number of persons with primary or secondary disabilities as a result of landmines, torture, violence and psychological trauma, increasing the need for humanitarian assistance.

Refugees and IDPs with disabilities who do manage to reach refugee camps often face barriers to accessing life-saving services and critical assistance programmes.  Although there is significant need among refugees with disabilities for health (both psychosocial and physical), education, employment, and access to justice services, too often such services remain out of reach for persons with disabilities.  If humanitarian programmes are not inclusive of refugees with disabilities, they are failing one of the most marginalized and vulnerable populations.

Humanitarian programming can be inaccessible in a variety of ways.  First, persons with disabilities may not be able to physically access food distribution, health or education services.  Relatedly, information and outreach efforts may not be accessible or targeted toward refugees with disabilities.  For example, refugee children with disabilities are denied the right to education when schools in refugee centres are inaccessible, do not provide accommodations, and/or do not actively seek to include children with disabilities. Part of the problem is that many humanitarian initiatives are not designed with refugees with disabilities in mind.  Without planning for disability inclusion in every stage of programme implementation, refugees with disabilities will not be able to fully benefit from life-saving services. 

Some humanitarian and international organizations are starting to address these shortcomings in refugee assistance.  Including refugees with disabilities and disabled people’s organizations in programme design and implementation can be an effective way of ensuring that programmes meet the needs of all refugees. While disability mainstreaming in humanitarian assistance is a worthy goal, disability-focused interventions can help to address immediate needs of women, men and children refugees with disabilities in a more targeted way.  Thus humanitarian organizations should aim to both mainstream disability into all programming and policies and provide direct assistance to refugees with disabilities. Lastly, training can help to raise awareness among humanitarian agencies and staff on how to make humanitarian work truly inclusive of persons with disabilities.  By integrating disability into humanitarian efforts, humanitarian organizations can better protect human rights, maximize benefits and expand reach to the most vulnerable populations.

To read more about One Billion Strong’s work with refugees in Uganda, please visit our website: http://www.one-billion-strong.org/site/315/What-We-Do/Refugees-and-Internally-Displaced-Persons/Refugee-Projects

Refugee children with disabilities in Uganda receiving support through UNHCR/One Billion Strong Program

Gateways to Inclusion: Airport Accessibility and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Airports are gateways to the world.  When airports and airlines are inaccessible to persons with disabilities they violate not only the right to accessibility[1] but also a host of other interrelated human rights.  People travel via air transport for a number of reasons, including: to attend a work related conference, to study abroad, to participate in a sporting event, to support a cause, to receive healthcare, or to enjoy a vacation.  The below diagram shows just some of the ways that the accessibility (or inaccessibility) of airports can impact other human rights as laid out in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Airports and airlines can be inaccessible to persons with disabilities in a number of ways: through failure to provide reasonable accommodation,[2] discriminatory policies, poorly trained staff, and inaccessible infrastructure, and/or signage to name a few of the access issues that persons with disabilities encounter. In some instances, persons with disabilities are not allowed to board flights without a personal assistant, as a recent case with Scoot Airlines showed.  Another article reports that a woman with a disability was left stranded for two days in the Stansted Airport due to complete mismanagement by airport personnel tasked with assisting her. Persons who use wheelchairs often face challenges with lost or damaged wheelchairs, which not only impacts their immediate mobility but also can have financial repercussions if people are not fully reimbursed for their wheelchair cost.

Fortunately, there have been some signs of reform and efforts to improve airport accessibility for persons with disabilities.  The more persons with disabilities who bring discrimination cases against airlines and publicly demand their rights, the more people who will be encouraged to do so in the future.  Easy Jet was recently found guilty of discriminating against three passengers with disabilities and fined over €70,000, providing a significant incentive for the airline to take accessibility seriously and sending a message to other carriers.

The Paralympics can be another hugely important factor for pushing countries to improve their airport accessibility.  London made substantial accessibility improvements to the Heathrow airport in the years and months leading up to the 2012 London Paralympics.  Future Paralympic games in Russia and Brazil will undoubtedly result in enhancements to airport accessibility in Sochi and Rio de Janeiro. In developing and middle income countries where infrastructure is not as advanced, such improvements make an even greater impact in the daily lives of persons with disabilities.

Accessibility is one of the most important disability rights issues, as it represents integration and full enjoyment of a range of other human rights.  It is time that airlines and airports be held to account for making air travel accessible, no more excuses.

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[1] See Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 9: http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf.

[2] Reasonable Accommodation is “a process through which necessary and appropriate modifications, adjustments, or provisions are made, in order to accommodate the accessibility needs in a particular case.” For more on reasonable accommodation, see the Human Rights. YES! chapter on Accessibility: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/HR-YES/chap-2.html.

Women, Disability and HIV/AIDS: Addressing compounding sources of discrimination to advance health and human rights

Men and women with disabilities face heightened rates of HIV infection (three times higher than persons without disabilities).[1]  Combined with disability, gender can be an intersecting source of discrimination within society that makes women and girls more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. For example, women with disabilities are more likely to experience human rights violations, such as sexual abuse, which expose survivors to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.  Disability can at times make it more difficult for women to escape attackers and to report abuse.[2]  Further, when abuse is reported by women with disabilities, law enforcement officers often do not take cases seriously or do not believe the survivors.

In many societies, myths related to transmission and cures for HIV/AIDS negatively impact women and girls with disabilities. For example, in certain countries people believe that having sex with a woman with a disability can cure AIDS, and thus this myth places them at a higher risk of being assaulted and contracting the disease.  In other cases, persons with disabilities are denied treatment or information, based on the assumptions that persons with disabilities are asexual or do not engage in high-risk behaviors such as injectable drug use.[3]

Women with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty due to reduced access to education and employment opportunities, limited accessibility, and generally lower earnings.  Poverty decreases the likelihood that women, and women with disabilities, will be able to access quality and lifesaving healthcare.  When HIV/AIDS programmes are not designed with persons with disabilities in mind, this creates another barrier to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

It is critical that health and development programmes consider the diverse needs of women with disabilities during design, implementation, and evaluation stages.  Disability inclusive programming must not only consider the physical accessibility of health facilities, but also how to provide information and outreach to persons with all types of disabilities. Including women with disabilities and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) during the planning and implementation stages can help to ensure that HIV/AIDS information and treatment are meeting the needs of women and girls with disabilities.

At the national level, HIV/AIDS strategies should be inclusive of all citizens.  National action plans therefore must address how to prevent and reduce HIV/AIDS, particularly among vulnerable populations, such as women with disabilities. DPOs and women’s civil society organizations can be an important source of pressure to ensure that governments consider women (and men) with disabilities in their HIV/AIDS strategies. 

Lastly, women with disabilities must have access to information about their rights as well as legal recourse when abuse occurs.  Training can help to sensitize law enforcement about sexual assault and about the intersections of violence, disability and the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Countries should also encourage recruitment of women police officers who are more likely to take sexual assault cases seriously.  Women with disabilities should not suffer higher rates of HIV/AIDS simply because they face greater discrimination within society and are more likely to experience violations to their human rights.

To learn more about the intersection of HIV/AIDS and Disability, see HIV/AIDS, Disability and Discrimination: A Thematic Guide on Inclusive Law, Policy, and Programming

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^[1] Human Rights Watch, “Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS and Disability,” 8 June 2011, accessed 15 March 2013, http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/06/08/fact-sheet-hivaids-and-disability.

[2] Shantha Rau Barriga, “Left Out Twice: Living with HIV and Disabilities,” Human Rights Watch, 21 July 2010, accessed 15 March 2013, http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/21/left-out-twice-living-hiv-and-disabilities.

[3] UNAIDS, WHO and, OHCHR, “Disability and HIV Policy Brief,” April 2009, accessed 15 March 2013, pg. 3 http://www.who.int/disabilities/jc1632_policy_brief_disability_en.pdf.