KEY TAKEAWAYS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Sexual violence is a heinous crime that can affect anyone in conflict zones around the world. However, those with disabilities are often at greater risk of sexual violence than their counterparts without disabilities. Despite this, programs and policies for addressing conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) rarely focus on how people with disabilities are uniquely affected, yet alone the best ways to prevent such violence, support survivors and seek justice.
As part of USIP’s 2023 Missing Peace Global Symposium, researchers, practitioners, policymakers and CRSV survivors together examined how people with disabilities are often overlooked in conflict settings — and how their own lived experiences can help inform prevention strategies moving forward.
People with disabilities routinely experience barriers to informed care during peace time. Without sufficient access to support, people with disabilities can become dependent on caregivers. This often results in confinement within their homes and limited interaction with the broader community, making them vulnerable to many types of violence, including sexual violence.
During times of conflict, this isolation — and the risks associated with it — only becomes more severe, as these individuals may struggle to access information and resources necessary for survival. For example, Sayda Eisa Ismail Dahab, secretary general for the Usratuna Association for Persons with Disabilities in Sudan, has noted significant challenges for individuals with sensory and mobility disabilities in the face of evacuation or mass displacement. In her experience, those who are deaf or blind may find it difficult to respond to evacuation orders, while those with physical disabilities may struggle with mobility. Trapped in their homes, they face an increased risk of sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups.
During times of conflict, this isolation — and the risks associated with it — only becomes more severe.
Even if they and their families manage to reach safety and shelter, Dahab pointed out that people with disabilities often run into issues with staff in displacement camps that are untrained or unaware of the specific needs of those with disabilities, leading to exclusion and inadequate support — and therefore re-establishing many of the same vulnerabilities that people with disabilities already faced.
In dangerous environments like these, incidents of sexual violence can also go unreported, as people with disabilities may not have access to reporting methods.
Nor is it guaranteed that professionals will believe and act when the atrocities are reported. Dr. Neema Rukunghu, who works at Panzi Hospital and Foundation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, described a case in which a woman with a disability reported to the community that she had been raped — only to have her report be dismissed until it was visibly clear she was pregnant.
It wasn’t until she reached Dr. Rukunghu’s hospital that the woman was able to receive medical care, economic empowerment, and support in placing an official accusation against her perpetrator. But the broader, systemic invisibility of people with disabilities — especially in CRSV responses — still leaves many victims without the support they need and further entrenches their marginalization within both their communities and the broader humanitarian response.
Even when people with disabilities can report CRSV, there is still the question of accountability for the perpetrators. Unfortunately, according to William Pons — an international lawyer specializing in the protection of persons with disabilities prior to, during, and after armed conflict and humanitarian crises — accountability and recognition of crimes specifically targeting people with disabilities is nearly nonexistent.
Crimes against people with disabilities are “completely overlooked,” said Pons, due to a lack of awareness regarding the heightened vulnerability of persons with disabilities and limited recognition that people are often the targets of serious violations of international law because of their disability.
There is also a harmful tendency to view people with disabilities as a homogenous group, which fails to account for the diversity within disability and can lead to inappropriate “one size fits all” approaches in pursuing justice. Data collection that’s disaggregated for disability is vital for ensuring that the needs of people with disabilities are met, meaningfully included, and considered in protection and justice mechanisms.
Furthermore, courts and prosecutors at the national and international levels often lack sufficient knowledge or training on how to ensure access to justice for people with disabilities, and people with disabilities are still excluded from accountability mechanisms because they are often considered “unreliable witnesses” based on their disability, something that Pons said urgently needs addressing.
The current gaps in preventing, responding to and seeking justice for CRSV against persons with disabilities are enormous. And advocates like Mause Darline Francois, a program specialist for U.N. Women’s efforts in Haiti, stress that closing these gaps will mean addressing the full breadth of challenges that people with disabilities experience before, during and after conflict.
There is already good news on this front. For instance, the U.N. Human Rights Office released a valuable resource in 2020 that contains principles and guidelines on how to ensure access to justice for people with disabilities.
One of the main priorities going forward should be to ensure that people with disabilities and their organizations play a leading role in initiatives to prevent and respond to CRSV. Organizations of persons with disabilities can inform preventative processes through lifetimes of knowledge, unique insight into local issues, and connection with the broader disability community.
Meanwhile, there is a significant lack of awareness of disability-informed practices among medical, social service, security, peacebuilding and justice professionals when preventing and responding to CRSV.
Training in disability inclusion and accessibility is crucial for these professionals to effectively support survivors. This includes equipping medical staff with the skills to recognize and address the unique physical and psychological needs of disabled survivors and ensuring that social services are accessible and responsive. Including interpreting services, multiple resource formats – such as large print, audio, and easy-to-read, and accessible physical spaces are potential avenues for professionals to implement disability-informed care.
Additionally, both the peacebuilding and human rights sectors should employ disability-disaggregated data and accessible reporting mechanisms to ensure that CRSV against persons with disabilities is accurately tracked. Such data will be a crucial step toward the accountability that has been sorely lacking for people with disabilities who experience CRSV and other war crimes.
Together, these efforts can develop into survivor-based strategies that are informed by the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities and foster a more inclusive approach that recognizes and acts upon their needs.
Sydney Johnson is a program assistant for USIP’s disability inclusion work.