Issues of Filipino Women with Disabilities
In recent years, significant efforts to document, expose and understand the situation of
women with disabilities have been made by the government and civil society. Some of
these initiatives are jointly organized by government agencies and non-government
organizations, engaging at grassroots and community levels as well international
advocacy and policy platforms. This section presents a summary of issues identified in
the following activities and processes: Most notable among these are the following:
- Problematizing Access to Justice of Women with Disabilities, April 21 2017,
Quezon City
- 2016 CEDAW Shadow Report submitted by the Philippine Alliance of Women
with Disabilities (PAWID), a coalition of organization of women with disabilities.
The report provides responses, counter-evidences on the situation of women
and girl with disabilities as reported by the State. It also offers recommendations
for the Committee’s consideration
- CHRP Working Paper on Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Accessing the
Justice System, September 2007
- Consultation on CEDAW Draft General Recommendations 19: Accelerating
Elimination of Gender-Based Violence against Women, September 27-28, 2016,
Quezon City
- Observations from cases on women with disabilities filed in CHR national and
regional offices
1. Policy gaps: absence, lack of, or non-implementation of laws protecting and
promoting rights of women with disabilities
In their 2016 CEDAW Shadow Report, PAWID exposed the cycle of invisibility of issues
and discrimination against women and girls. The report identified non-implementation
of disability-specific provisions in laws and absence of policies to promote and ensure
accessibility and reasonable accommodation for women and girls with disabilities.
Similarly during the consultation in April 2017 on access to justice of women with
disabilities, participants raised policy issues concerning all impairment groups.
Discriminatory provisions in law:
- The National Council on Disability Affairs failed to take measures to amend the
BP 344 or the Accessibility Law to make it inclusive of all impairment groups
- Discriminatory definition of persons with psychological incapacity under Article
36 of the Family Code of the Philippines, where the law describes such persons
as unable to enter into marital contract
- The proposed Mental Health Bill is degrading to a person with psychosocial
disability who will be placed in a mental health institution and will thus worsen
that person’s mental condition.
- The mandatory 1 percent share of the annual total budget allotted for the PWD
sector has been removed from the General Appropriations Act since 2013.
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