Special Rapporteur Catalina Devandas Aguilar on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (U.N. Doc. A/72/133, 2017)

This report focuses on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities. The term “girls with disabilities” refers to women with disabilities below the age of 18 years, whereas the term “young women with disabilities” refers to women between 15 and 24 years of age. The Special Rapporteur stresses that those women face significant challenges in making autonomous decisions with regards to their reproductive and sexual health, and are regularly exposed to violence, abuse and harmful practices, including forced sterilization, forced abortion and forced contraception. She recalls that States have an obligation to invest in the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities, and to end all forms of violence against them. In preparing her report, the Special Rapporteur analyzed 47 responses to a questionnaire sent to Member States, national human rights institutions and civil society organizations, including representative organizations of persons with disabilities, as well as the outcome of consultations conducted with girls and young women with disabilities in three countries, whose main trends are reflected in the text. She also organized an expert consultation in New York in June 2017 with representatives of United Nations agencies, women’s organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank Plan International, who supported the research efforts for the study, which was undertaken under the coordination of her office