Organisers of the Pacific Technical Cooperation Session of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee were questioned this week on why women with disabilities were not included throughout the event’s sessions.
Ana Peláez Narváez, a member of the CEDAW Committee, posed the question to the Pacific Community (SPC) during the Women with Disabilities talanoa session on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is not an equal participation,” she said.
“This is the first time that this wonderful group of women are here, present. They were not here yesterday. They may not be here tomorrow, after tomorrow or on Friday.”
Ms Narváez, the first woman with disability elected to the CEDAW Committee, said inclusion and diversity were key in the delivery of their work.
“We don’t want to have women with disabilities talk about them in one and a half hours for an important session.
“We want to have inclusivity and diversity of all women including women with disabilities in all the Technical Cooperation Session.”
Pacific Disability Forum chief executive Sainimili Tawake called on the CEDAW Committee to mandate the states of Fiji, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands to expedite the submission of their reports under the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“We urge the CEDAW Committee to champion our cause through concrete actions and mandating our governments for the full implementation of supported decision-making and inclusive governance, equitable access to justice and meaningful participation in public life,” she said.
The experiences shared by panellists from Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands, she said, reflected the challenges they continued to face “but also the unwavering strength, resilience and leadership we bring to our communities, families and our country”.
“They paint a clear picture that women with disabilities are systematically excluded from the spaces that shape our lives: education, health care, political decision-making processes, the justice systems and so forth.”
