The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, abbreviated as ‘BPfA’, is the global bill of rights for women’s equality. It is a landmark document for advancing women’s rights and gender equality globally. It was agreed at the fourth World Conference of Women in September, 1995. Around 189 countries came to a consensus and agreed to a comprehensive blueprint of commitments supporting the full development of women and their equality with men in twelve critical areas of concerns: Poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, media, environment, and the girl child.
The states have made political commitments to fulfill these requirements. Therefore, each of these states reviews its progress on the BPfA every five years. The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the BPfA, 25th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and 10 years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals. These anniversaries are great opportunities to strengthen gender-responsive action and implementation of the 2030 Agenda and other global commitments.
The sixty-ninth session of the Commission of the Status of Women is also going to take place at UN headquarters in New York from March 10-12, 2024. The main focus of the session is planned to review and appraise the implementation of the BPfA and outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. Therefore, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) is leading the Asia-Pacific regional intergovernmental review in close collaboration with UN Women. Since it is going to be marked as the 30th anniversary of the fourth World Conference on Women and BPfA, it is also campaigned as Beijing+30.
In this context, the regional review is undergoing where countries have already submitted their progress reports and civil society reports are under process. Taking this opportunity, Federation of Women with Disabilities Nepal and National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal in partnership with Disability Rights Fund organized a first historical national consultation and review along with the provincial representation on Beijing+30 by women and girls with disabilities in Nepal. Around 70 women and girls with disabilities from all seven provinces and national levels representing more than 34 organizations of persons with disabilities belonging to diverse backgrounds participated in the Beijing+30 consultation and review.
Though there was participation and engagement of the women and girls with disabilities during the fourth World Conference on Women and BPfA, there has not been significant interventions to ensure the equal participation and recognition of the women and girls with disabilities during its implementation at the country level. The BPfA clearly states that BPfA and its twelve critical areas of concerns equally matter to women and girls with disabilities. The government of Nepal submitted its progress report in June 2024 where it reported the progress on women and girls with disabilities. But these are not satisfactory.
According to the World Health Organization, there are about 1.3 billion people (around 16 percent) out of the total global population who experience some form of disability. The global prevalence of women and girls with disabilities is greater than that of the men and boys with disabilities constituting 19 percent women and girls than that of the 12 percent men and boys. Globally, one in five women has a disability. The 2021 population census of Nepal reports that the disability prevalence is only 2.2 percent which is slightly higher than that of the 2011 census. The prevalence of women and girls with disabilities is lower than in the previous census.
The women and girls are a heterogenous group. They have diversity based on their caste, ethnicity, class, race, culture, age, origin, geography, language and so on. Based on these diversities, their needs and requirements also vary. So, the linear approach of development does not fit for all. The women and girls with disabilities do have their own kind of issues and challenges. They face intersectional discrimination, which is often not fully recognised and thus inadequately addressed. Recognizing these realities, the women and girls with disabilities came up with some serious concerns over the Beijing+30 review.
The BPfA only makes cursory reference to women and girls with disabilities, progress on their full empowerment and gender equality has been insufficient. While analyzing the government of Nepal’s recently submitted review report on BPfA, it is found that the disability has been referenced only five times in a ninety-four pages document. Therefore, the national consultation and reviews strongly raised a concern to the government for nil representation of women and girls with disabilities into the disaster management mechanisms despite its landmark work on accommodating gender equality, disability and social inclusion in disaster risks reduction and management strategic action plan 2024. Similarly, the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2022 provides data on disability by type and age for both men and women. However, it does not provide disaggregated data based on their caste, ethnicity, culture, language, and religion which are the fundamental characteristics of the population.
The government of Nepal has endorsed the disability-friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Service Guideline, 2022 to ensure inclusive SRHR services to people with disabilities through health facility settings and beyond. But these lack translation of policies to the practices.
Women and girls with disabilities from Dalit, Indigenous, Madheshi, Muslim and Minority communities are still facing huge intersectional discriminations due to their multiple identities.
Women and girls with disabilities expressed various types of concerns. They said that they experience more discrimination, social stigma and gender stereotypes than those without disabilities. The women and girls with disabilities from Dalit, Indigenous, Madheshi, Muslim and Minority communities are still facing huge intersectional discriminations due to their multiple identities. A young Dalit girl with disability shared her lived experience of being from an ultra-poor Dalit family from Karnali province. Her intersectional discrimination marginalized her at the bottom of the society than any others. Evidence reports that women and girls with disabilities may face up to ten times more violence than those without disabilities. According to them, the most vulnerable to violence are children with autism spectrum, as well as those with hearing, visual, psychosocial, or intellectual disabilities. And, those are mostly from the Dalit and Madheshi communities. The Chhaupadi tradition in Sudurpaschim has dominantly multiplied the layers of discrimination and exclusion against women and girls with disabilities.
The women and girls with disabilities are disproportionately discriminated against due to a caste-based hierarchical and patriarchal socio-cultural norms and values. Thus, they are still not recognized and underrepresented in all power sharing and decision-making mechanisms and structures. They are the poorest of the poor. They lack access to justice due to Nepal’s poor and inaccessible legal aid system and frameworks. Those women and girls with disabilities strongly demanded submitting a separate review report to the Commission on the Status of Women in 69th Session in Beijing+30 review.
Facts show that women and girls with disabilities are the most marginalized and underrepresented groups among the women and girls. Thus, taking this disability specific approach to intervene in BPfA review by purely women and girls with disabilities has set a historical milestone in the national, regional and global women’s rights movement. Their unheard voices should be amplified and made to be heard by all the state actors and non-state actors. In order to achieve the aspiration of ‘leave no one behind’ in the current 2030 agenda for sustainable development and its sustainable development goals translating the motto of nothing about us without us, the Beijing+30 reviews must prioritize the full and effective participation of women and girls with disabilities particularly from the global south.
Krishna Gahatraj is a development professional with an expertise on human rights and disability inclusive development.
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