Gender and disability: the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
7.3 Case studies on the current use of CEDAW in the context of disability
the precise effects of the reservations are in terms of national law and policy, and whether there are any plans to limit the effects of reservations or to withdraw them (including a timetable).38 If a State party has made general reservations that do not refer to specific articles of the Convention, or if it has made reservations to articles 2 and 3, it should make a particular effort to provide information on the effect and interpretation of such reservations.39
The guidelines for second and subsequent reports are similar to those for initial reports. They should cover matters that were not included in the initial report and concentrate on the period of time since the consideration of the last report by the Committee.40 They should furthermore have regard to the deliberations of the
Committee concerning the preceding report, include legal and other measures adopted to implement the Convention since the last report and describe progress made in eliminating discrimination against women.41
In the context of disability, General Recommendation No. 18 observes that State party reports contain scanty information on disabled women. Referring to article 3 (basic human rights and fundamental freedoms), it expresses concern about women with disabilities, "who suffer from a double discrimination linked to their special living conditions".42
Although General Recommendation No. 18 identifies priority areas for reporting in respect of women with disabilities (human rights and fundamental freedoms and special measures in education, employment, health services and social security), it clearly does not imply that States parties are thereby relieved from reporting on women with disabilities under the other provisions of the Convention.
7.3 Case studies on the current use of CEDAW in the context of
(a) Azerbaijan’s initial report (1996)
Azerbaijan’s initial report was published in September 1996.43 Azerbaijan is a relatively new State party, having achieved independence from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1995.
The report did not address the situation of women with disabilities.
Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees equality on a number of grounds, which do not include disability. Article 19 of the Constitutional Act of State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan sets out the State party's equality provisions, which make no direct reference to disability:
All citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan enjoy equal rights and obligations according to the law. The Republic of Azerbaijan, subscribing to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference, and other generally recognized international legal documents, ensures the enjoyment and free exercise of all the rights and freedoms provided therein, irrespective of sex, racial or ethnic affiliation, religion, social origin, political convictions and other circumstances.
While disability is not specifically mentioned, it could conceivably be covered by
"other circumstances".
The educational system is reported to provide for "special schools, classes, groups and home study for physically immature and mentally retarded children".44
Paragraph 111 of the report deals with protection for pregnant women. Provision is made under the Labour Code for flexible working arrangements for women who care for a sick relative. Provision is also made for unpaid leave to care for chronically ill children.45
The Employment Act states that persons "who particularly need social protection include … women raising preschool or disabled children". The State party provides assistance to this group in finding work, organizes training courses on their behalf and affords them tax concessions.
According to paragraph 117:
The right of citizens to social security are laid down in article 38 of the Constitution of the Azerbaijani Republic. Everyone is entitled to social security on attaining the age established by law or on grounds of sickness, invalidity, loss of the breadwinner or incapacity to work.
This provision suggests that allowances exist under the Social Security Code that are of relevance to women with disabilities. Mothers are entitled to State pensions in certain situations. Mothers of disabled children who have cared for children up to the
43 CEDAW/C/AZE/1.
44 Ibid., para. 104.
45 Ibid., para. 113.
age of eight are entitled to an old-age pension on attaining the age of 50 with at least 15 years' service.46
Summary records
Disability was not mentioned in the summary record.
Concluding comments
Disability was not mentioned in the concluding comments.47 (b) Bulgaria’s second and third periodic reports (1994) The State party report
Bulgaria's combined second and third periodic reports under the Convention were published in November 1994.48
The combined report does not deal explicitly with women with disabilities.
The report reflects on the political upheaval of the recent past, which resulted in a new Constitution for Bulgaria. The Constitution contains a non-discrimination clause which does not refer to disability as a prohibited ground of discrimination.
At the time of writing its report, Bulgaria had not yet adopted a charter on human rights. However, there were plans to introduce such a charter to ensure that Bulgaria was in compliance with its international legal obligations.49 No direct reference was made to women with disabilities in these plans.
Women with disabilities were not specifically referred to in the context of violence against women, in institutions or elsewhere. The Bulgarian Penal Code contains an offence of sexual abuse of any person in a "helpless condition". The punishment for such an offence is imprisonment for up to five years.
The statistics contained in the report do not refer to women with disabilities.
An indirect reference to people with disabilities occurs in the context of employment.
Article 48 of the Bulgarian Constitution states that:
(1) Citizens shall have the right to work. The State party shall take care to provide conditions for the exercising of this right.
(2) The State party shall create conditions conducive to the exercise of the right to work by the physically or mentally handicapped.
Article 51, paragraph 3, of the Constitution states that:
46 Ibid., para. 118.
47 A/53/38, paras. 69-79.
48 CEDAW/C/BGR/2-3.
49 Ibid., para. 35.
(3) The aged without relatives and unable to support themselves, as well as the physically and mentally handicapped, shall enjoy the special protection of the State party and society.
The report mentions that the social care system in Bulgaria provides for "institutions for the handicapped".50 The institutionalization of people with disabilities is
mentioned in a positive light as helping to alleviate women’s work in the family.
Reference is made to the fact that there are not enough of these services available.
Another indirect reference to disability is made under article 18 of the Family Code concerning marriage and the family. The requirements for equality between spouses include mutual care, especially in the case of illness, disability and exceptional workload. Failure to provide such care on the part of the healthy spouse is considered to be a breach of that spouse's marital obligations.51
In its conclusions, the report acknowledges that pensioners and the handicapped have proven to be the most vulnerable groups during the period of social transition because of Bulgaria's financial difficulties and the policy of structural and economic reform.52 List of issues
The list was not available at the time of writing.
Responses to the list of issues
The responses were not available at the time of writing.
Summary records
The issue of women with disabilities was not referred to.
Concluding comments53
No reference was made to women with disabilities in the concluding comments.
(c) Finland’s fourth periodic report (1999) The State party report
Finland's fourth periodic report under the Convention was published in 1999.54 Disability is mentioned in the context of articles 5 (prejudice and stereotypes) and 11 (discrimination in employment). Under article 5,55 Finland reports that the social position of “disabled women” has been the subject of public debate for years and that there has been a strong increase in awareness of their rights during the 1990s.
50 Ibid., para. 110
51 Ibid., para. 147
52 Ibid., para. 165
53 A/53/38, paras. 208 - 261.
54 CEDAW/C/FIN/4.
55 Ibid., para. 3.
Rehabilitation and participation in society is emphasized in “social policy for the disabled”. Services and aid are said to be central to such policy and the services to which “the severely disabled” have a “so-called subjective right” are said to have increased in the 1990s. They include medical rehabilitation and services based on an Act concerning services for the disabled, including transport, interpretation, housing, home improvement and provision of household tools and equipment.
According to the report, “special services for the mentally handicapped” are used by 21,000 persons. One of the main purposes of a three-year project introduced in 1997 (Networking Special Services) by the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health is reported to be the provision of “special services for the mentally handicapped”.
The Finnish report notes that the delivery of such “special services" is being moved from districts to municipalities. However, district care will still support municipal care with institutional care and expertise. Institutionalization is reported to be decreasing and is being replaced by housing in the community and auxiliary services. The report notes that it is especially challenging to meet the service needs of “ageing mentally
handicapped persons living with their parents” who will need public housing services in the near future.
In the context of article 11, 56 the reports notes under the heading “Supporting the professional training and employment of the disabled” that improvements in the employability of “disabled people” enhance their full integration into society. In accordance with the European Union guidelines for employment, and with the help of employment methods created by the European Social Fund, the goal of Finnish employment policy is to raise the employment rate of the entire population. The aim is to improve quality control over subsidized employment and to improve the training of job counsellors and the organization of job counselling services in order to cover the whole country by the end of the year 2000.
As part of the Finnish employment plan under the European Union guidelines, the legislation on rehabilitation allowances, disability allowances and national pensions is reported to have been amended in 1999. The amendments guarantee the right of 16/17-year-old “disabled persons” to professional training and an increased rehabilitation allowance. According to the report, “seriously disabled young persons” who retired at 16 without an evaluation of their working capacity and without rehabilitation will not be granted an “invalidity pension” unless “occupational rehabilitation has been found to be impossible”. Persons who are entitled to an “invalidity pension” can interrupt their pension for 6 months to 2 years. In order to make working more profitable than being on a pension, a “special disability allowance” is paid during this interruption.
The terminology used in the report with reference to women (and others) with
disabilities includes: “disabled women”, “severely disabled”, “mentally handicapped”,
“ageing mentally handicapped persons”, “the disabled”, “disabled people”, “disabled persons“, “seriously disabled young persons” and “invalidity pension”.
56 Ibid., para. 5.
List of issues
The Committee’s "list of issues" regarding Finland’s fourth periodic report was submitted to the Finnish Government in July 2000.57 As the Committee considered Finland’s third and fourth reports together, the questions in the list refer to both reports.
The "list of issues" mentions disability in the context of articles 5, 11 and 12.
In the context of article 5,58 the working group wished to receive more information on the Networking Special Services project mentioned in the fourth periodic report. It noted that 21,000 persons had used the “special services for the mentally
handicapped”. Other questions raised by the working group were:
- Are there sex-disaggregated data on disabled persons, including the mentally handicapped?
- Are there any measures in place to protect disabled women form abuse?
- Do disabled women have access to the full range of health care for their particular needs?
- What provisions are there for continuing their education and training?
- To what extent is public transportation made available and designed for accessibility, safety and the convenience of disabled women?
- Describe cases of disabled women who have been physically and sexually abused while in the care of their families or in the community and the measures taken to address such abuse;
- Provide statistics on violence against disabled women.
The working group also wished to know more about the shift in responsibility for caring for “the elderly and the disabled” from women to men as described in the third and fourth periodic reports. It noted that such care was supported only through home-care allowances for children and relatives.
Some of the questions put by the working group to Finland under article 5 were intended to clarify information on women with disabilities contained in the report and others concerned issues such as education, public transport and abuse of women with disabilities that had not been mentioned.
In the context of article 11, the working group requested more information on the implementation of the Finnish "Employment Plan" relating to “disability”. It wished to know how many “disabled women” received benefits from the plan compared with
“disabled men”. In the context of article 12, the working group noted that, according to a study referred to in Finland’s third report, 60 per cent of the population had suffered from some form of mental illness and these illnesses were more common among women than among men. It wished to know what the main causes were, what
57 CEDAW/PSWG/2001/I/CRP.1/Add. 3.
58 Ibid., paras. 20-21.
measures the Government had taken to address the issue and whether the Government had undertaken a gender analysis of mental health care services.
The terminology used by the working group with regard to women (or other persons) with disabilities included “mentally handicapped”, “disabled persons”, “disabled women”, “the disabled”, “mental illnesses”, “disability” and “disabled men”.
Responses to the list of issues
The Finnish Government's responses to the list of issues were received by the
Committee in September 2000. They mentioned disability in the context of articles 5, 11 and 12.
In relation to article 5, the Finnish Government noted that disability was one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination in its revised Constitution. In addition, under the Act on Basic Education, sign language could be selected as the language of
instruction and could, if the guardian so wished, be taught as a person's mother tongue.
The Government provided information on the Networking Special Services project. The first part of the project, which had been carried out in 1998-1999, was designed to ensure that all 460 municipalities had access to experts in “special services (e.g. special services for the mentally handicapped)”. In addition to State party actors, research and educational institutions and NGOs were reported to have participated in the project.
In response to the Committee’s question about sex-disaggregated data on “disabled persons”, the Finnish Government said that no such data was available. In response to the question on abuse of “disabled women”, it stated that awareness of the sexual abuse of “disabled women” had increased and that it had been a subject of public debate. On the question of legal protection, the Government stated that the Finnish Penal Code had been amended in 1998 and that sexual abuse of “the disabled” was a criminal act. The Penal Code was also reported to contain separate provisions protecting persons placed in institutional care. With regard to coercive measures in social welfare and health care, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health was stated to be preparing provisions that would protect “the disabled” from “sexual harassment”.
Persons with severe disabilities were entitled to a personal assistant by virtue of the Service and Assistance for the Disabled Act. While the primary purpose of this Act was to “ensure the independent life of a disabled person and reduce his or her dependence on other people”, a personal assistant would also help to protect against sexual abuse. In general, the problem had reportedly been addressed in many “institutions meant for the disabled” by training the personnel in identifying sexual abuse. There were no statistics on offences committed against “disabled women”.
On the issue of access for “disabled women” to health care, the Government stated that although the special needs of “the disabled” were generally taken into account in the health care system, not all health care centres or municipalities could provide “the disabled” with the necessary services in a way that took their “special needs” into account. In such cases, they were referred to another establishment. The networking of municipal services was one way of tackling the problem.
In response to the working group’s question on the education and training of women with disabilities, the Finnish authorities stated that both men and women with disabilities had "in principle good possibilities to study". They acknowledged that, while there were no legislative obstacles to the education of women with disabilities, practical problems such as lack of "services supporting…studies" and physical access to buildings hampered access to educational establishments in some towns.
In response to the working group’s question about the convenience, accessibility and safety of public transport, the State party noted that the convenience of public transport was being constantly improved. In the Helsinki district all new vehicles for public transport had to be accessible. However, the accessibility of long-distance coaches had not been improved to the same extent as that of town coaches. The State party also acknowledged that, while new trains were designed for accessibility, older trains were
“problematic for the disabled”.
In the context of article 11,59 the Finnish response noted that 58 per cent of some 80,000 persons with disabilities registered as job seekers during 1999 were women. Among all
“disabled clients” seeking vocational counselling, about 60 per cent were women. In 1999, 9,000 “persons with disabilities” had begun labour market training, 32,237 had found a placement in the open labour market and over 12,000 placements had been arranged by means of support measures implemented by the labour administration.
Four tables were included in the reply, showing the number of “disabled women” in sheltered workshops, in daytime activity units, and seeking vocational rehabilitation in employment offices and under a rehabilitation scheme run by the social insurance institutions. In addition to measures taken under the Finnish Employment Plan, new measures supported by the European Social Fund had been taken to improve the educational and employment possibilities of “persons with disabilities”. These measures included “job hunting counselling based on peer support, development of supported employment, rehabilitation club houses for persons with mental problems, social enterprises and cooperatives as well as individual paths to employment”. The measures were reported to assist women with disabilities in integrating into working life.
A quality system was being developed for supported employment and specialists in the field were being trained. Steps had been taken to expand a European Social Fund project called the Fountain House Model, which assisted “persons with mental problems”
who were undergoing rehabilitation in finding employment. Reform was reportedly under way in the area of sheltered work. Finland also noted that the requirements for “disability allowance” were different for Finnish citizens and foreign citizens.
In the context of article 12,60 the State party explained that the figure of 60 per cent mentioned in the fourth periodic report as the number of persons with “mental illness”
was an unfortunate misinterpretation. The figure referred to a study in which a representative sample of the population had been asked about their “everyday mental problems (such as experiencing overstrain, melancholy, nervousness or tension,
59 CEDAW/PSWG/2001/I/CRP.1/Add. 3, questions 35 and 37.
60 Ibid., question 40.