Factors in Violence Against Women

Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the Situation of Violence Against Women, visited Guatemala from February 8 to 14. She was able to meet with the organizations working against violence affecting women, and government and nongovernmental human rights organizations, together with other government authorities. The objective of these meetings was to present to the Special Rapporteur the serious situation of violence against the female population in our country and to elaborate recommendations for the Guatemalan State.

I was able to participate in the meetings of the National Movement for Human Rights (Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos), accompanied by two other women with disabilities. Our objective was to share with the representatives present in the audience about the importance of including the needs and the opinions of women with disabilities as with in the scope or the work being conducted by the United Nations Special Rapporteur.

My participation, together with the other two women with disability was among those of about 15 sectors of our society expressing their experience with violence from different perspectives: women from autochthonous groups, women victims of abuse and sexual harassment, children of the streets, women in art, assembly lines, and other situations where they become particularly vulnerable to discrimination and exclusion.

The other topic of great concern is the invisibility of disability as a human characteristic: this places the victims in a more vulnerable position.

Violence against women with disabilities is still erroneously considered a private matter in most cases. This situation worsens with the often increased physical vulnerability, coupled with less opportunity to communicate with other persons, and intensified by the great dangers that arise when people do not pay attention to you or when they do not believe you. This is particularly true with women with cognitive disabilities. In general, girls and women with disabilities do not participate much in regular social activities; they are devalued. That is why it is no surprise that violence against girls and women with disabilities is not addressed and the victims remain invisible, perpetuating the belief that this situation does not exist in our society. This situation describes a double negative effect: so long as there is violence against us, women with disabilities, there will be greater difficulties against the life of other persons with disabilities.

Legal barriers

As a whole, the Guatemalan State, with the weakness of its institutions and its paternalistic structure, becomes an important limitation when trying to address violence against women with disabilities as a violation of human rights. If such violations fail to be recognized, it is very hard to exercise legal protections for the victims or to establish legal procedures against suspects or perpetrators. We need to combat both, violence and impunity. That is the only path to justice.

Women with disabilities are not fully recognized as being persons having rights, consequently, they do not have an equal status under the law. There are legal barriers, like the one found in the Civil Code, Article 13, declaring that blind and congenitally deaf personas are legally incapable.

Now to such legal restriction, if we add factors such as we are dealing with a woman, a minor, and someone having a mental disability, these aspects together make this a serious situation. We would be considering a "person", treated as a useless, not "productive" object by the society. Then the situation becomes that of a person forced into invisibility, deprived of credibility and value.

Disability as a risk factor

The women's movement has identified diverse forms of violence: physical, psychological, sexual, economic pressure and verbal expressions. Yet, besides these forms of violence, women with disabilities also confront isolation, abandonment, often manifested in forced institutionalization and its devastating consequences

Prejudice and stereotypes regarding women with disabilities reinforce the ideas that they do not have feelings, that they are people who cannot completely understand the situations they going through or are experiencing from their surroundings, that they are the objects of medical assistance or that they can be used freely by others. These conceptions have greatly contributed to disfranchising us as persons: That is why, and not infrequently, we are abused and even raped, malignantly and with premeditation... while impunity seems to be the norm.

So the conditions of being a women and having a disability contribute to vulnerability and multiply the number of assaults and the magnitude of the violence inflicted upon us, particularly those living in institutions or those with little opportunities to get away from their homes. Sadly, members of thestaff of many institutions and even persons with close family ties have been accused and proven responsible of repeated acts of violence against women, and also men, with disabilities.

And the list of violations continues because society in general will always try to annul the sexuality of women with disabilities, not just limiting opportunities for developing relationships, but also by forcing sterilization, physically abusing these women, imposing prohibitions so they cannot form their own families, and even trying to take their children away from them. We have to denounce and correct the fact that the majority of women with disabilities are not allowed to live independent lives or make their own choices. They are denied personal autonomy and the right to decide about their own destiny.

The women's movement and independent life

The women's movement has focused its efforts at validating the rights to a life with dignity, free from violence, with autonomy, respect for diversity, the full enjoyment of sexuality, freedom from prejudice. Women demand justice and equal participation in society. Such aspirations and vindications are the same as those demanded by women with disabilities. These fair demands for action coincide with the position defended by the women's movement, and also call for the independent living philosophy.

Therefore, the needs and demands of women with disabilities must be part of the vindications of the feminist movement. The feminist movement must promote the participation of women with disabilities. We call on all women because, in seeking equality to counteract a male dominated world, we have to build up a world of fair and diverse human relationships.

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