DPA’s report for CEDAW shares voices of disabled women in Aotearoa

Tēnā koutou katoa, e te whānau whānui. Ngā mihi aroha ki tēnei wā pouri.

Ka nui rā te tangi, ka nui rā te mamae ki te ariki Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero te tuawhitu!  Kua hinga te Tōtara o Te Waonui a Tāne.  Moe mai ia i te amo o te Kaihanga.

To you all, our whānau far and wide, sending love at this sad time.

Many are the tears, heavy is the pain because of the loss of Kingi Tūheitia. A great Tōtara tree has fallen in the forest of Tāne.  Rest well in the arms of Creator.

Turning to acknowledgement of the Māori Queen Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō and connect it to the DPA's first time submitting to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) to share the many voices of disabled women. 

DPA’s report highlights disabled women’s perspectives including the perspective for disabled women who are Māori, Pacifica, LGBTQIA+/takatāpui, migrants, rural area residents, and other intersections.

Despite commitments by successive governments to CEDAW and the Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons (CRPD), disabled women face discrimination, stigmas and prejudice on multiple levels.

Recommendations focus on funding and resourcing, strategy creation and implementation, better data and repeals of harmful legislation, especially in areas impacting on marginalised disabled women and rainbow communities.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Patti Poa, a Policy Advisor at DPA, for working tirelessly to gather experiences, and to identify and fill gaps in our knowledge where we often do not hear the voice of disabled women as it relates to specific communities.

We would also like to thank all the disabled women and organisations across the motu who shared their experiences with Patti. We could fill a library with our experiences, and we are saddened we could not include them all. We want you to know that this work will be fundamental in informing our continued advocacy for the rights of disabled women.

We acknowledge the power of disabled women in who we are, what we do and the communities we are involved in.

Kei a koutou te mana, te ihi, te wehi! To you all is the authority, the power, you are to be feared!  

Read a Word version of DPA's alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) [Word]. Content warning: this report discusses violence.

Read a PDF version of DPA's alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) [PDF]. Content warning: this report discusses violence.