Dr Tom Shakespeare - RI Sexuality Presentation

1. Disability and Sexual Rights
Tom Shakespeare
University of East Anglia

2. 2
Cultural stereotypes about
disabled sexuality
 Assumed to be asexual or innocent/
childlike
 Or else deviant, excessive,
dangerous
 Taboos around sexuality for
everyone, in some countries

3. Sexual Politics of Disability (1996)
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1. Problem of disabled sexuality is not
“how to do it” but “who to do it with”
2. Followed up 8 respondents after 20
years:
• With age, more comfortable in their
bodies, emotionally stronger
• Because everyone ageing, they feel
less different, as disabled people
• But have chronic illnesses,
secondary disabilities, co-morbidities
• Men are more accepting of disabled
women as potential partners in later
life
• Internet enables sexual connections
• Concerns about austerity

4. Not taboo! People with disabilities
are sexually active
 Sierra Leone (urban areas): 58% of respondents with severe/very severe
and 71% with mild/moderate disabilities had sexual intercourse in the
previous year, compared to 92% of nondisabled respondents (Trani et al.
2010)
 Malawi: study with 341 people with disabilities revealed that 76% had
been sexually active (Munthali, Mvula & Ali, 2004)
 Cameron: 80% of 126 deaf people had been sexually active (Touko,
2008);
 Uganda: 77% of women with disabilities had previously been pregnant
(Mulindwa, 2003).
 USA: 50% of people with severe disabilities, 60% of people with non-
severe disabilities and 68% of nondisabled people are married (Emens,
2009: 1326).
 Sweden: 75% of spinal cord injured women have sex six months post-
injury (Kreuter et al 2008)
 Malaysia: 40% of spinal cord injured women continue sexual activity after
injury (Othman and Engkasan 2011)
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Need and unmet need
 Violence and sexual abuse
 Sexual and reproductive health services:
 HIV/AIDS and STIs
Family planning, contraception,
abortion
Sterilization rates – consent issues
Reproductive & maternal health

6. 6
Barriers to SRH care
 Information, information access
 Attitudes and stigma
 Physical access
 Functional limitations
 Poverty
 Disempowerment

7. Human rights context
 Right to sexual health for all (General Comment 5 and 20 of
the CESCR, General Comment no. 24 of CEDAW, General
Comment no. 12 of the Human Rights Committee, General
Comment no.15 of CRC).
 CRPD Article 23 – Respect for home and family: ‘take
effective and appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters
relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships,
on an equal basis with others.’
 CRPD Article 25 – Health: State Parties shall provide the
same range, quality and standard of free or affordable
health care to disabled people as to nondisabled people,
‘including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and
population-based public health programmes’.
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8. Committee on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
 e.g. Concluding Observations, on Peru, the Committee calls for
the State to amend domestic laws ‘to adequately guarantee the
exercise of civil rights, in particular the right to marry, to all
persons with disabilities’ (Article 21 (1)(a)). (CRPD 2012, para
27).
 E.g. Concluding Observations on Costa Rica, Committee calls for
an end to the practice of separating women with disabilities from
their children (CPRD 2014b, paragraph 44): ‘The Committee
urges the State party to review the procedures by which women
with disabilities are declared unfit mothers and fully restore their
rights to have a home and found a family, ensuring that they
have the support necessary to make these rights effective.’
 E.g. Concluding Observations on China, ‘Committee calls upon the
State party to revise its laws and policies in order to prohibit
compulsory sterilization and forced abortion on women with
disabilities.’
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9. What do rights require?
 Negative vs positive freedom:
formal vs substantive equality
 Remove barriers: law, access,
discrimination, privacy etc
 Provide supports: sex ed, parenting
classes, assistance, supported
decision making:
 Don Kulick and Jens Rydstrom,
Loneliness and Its Opposite
 Sex work/surrogacy? 9

10. People with disabilities
have sex, too…
A Review of the Inclusion of
People with Disabilities in
Sexual and Reproductive
Health Programmes in Low-
and Middle-Income Countries
Jessica Reidies, Gallaudet
University (Intern, RHR) &
Tinashe Dune, University of
Sydney (Intern, DAR)

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SRH Services found
 HIV/AIDS (20)
 Sex Education (12)
 Rights Advocacy (5)
 Abuse Prevention (2)
 Maternal Health (1)
This comic is featured in an issue of
Straight Talk (2008) focusing on PWD
and provides suggestions for how girls
with disabilities may resist sexual
harassment. (Straight Talk Foundation,
Republic of Uganda)

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Shyrak: Reproductive Rights and Raising Self-
Esteem of Women with Disabilities in Countries
of Central Asia
EURO Region
Almaty, Republic of
Kazakhstan
TOT Education
Session in
Reproductive
Health, 2010
www.shyrak.kz
Organization founded to provide
non-SRH services to disabled
people adopts into its programming
one or more SRH initiatives.

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Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action: Deaf
HIV/AIDS Awareness Project
AFRO Region
Braamfontein, Republic of
South Africa
www.gala.co.za
Organization which was not
designed primarily to deliver
SRH services begins a new SRH
initiative targeting people with
disabilities.

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Associação de Prevenção e Trátamento da Aids
(APTA):Programa Interno de Prevenção e Assistência à Aids
(PIPA)
AMRO Region
São Paulo, Federative
Republic of Brazil
www.apta.org.br
Young people with intellectual
disabilities learn about human
anatomy.
Organization which primarily
delivers SRH services to non-
disabled people begins a new
initiative to target people with
disabilities.

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Talking About Reproductive
and Sexual Health Issues
(TARSHI)
SEARO Region
New Delhi, Republic of
India
www.tarshi.net
SRH programme targeted to non-disabled
people is modified for accessibility for people
with disabilities.
Helpline counsellors receive
12-14 weeks of training,
which includes a module on
disability

16. 16
Creating Resources for Empowerment
in Action (CREA)
SEARO Region
New Delhi,
Republic of India
Count Me In! conference
attendees Malini Chib and
Shohini Ghosh
SRH programme targeted
to non-disabled people is
inherently accessible to
one or more categories of
impairment.

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Summary
 People with disabilities all have the same
sexual needs as non-disabled people
 It’s a vital human right
 Disabled people ARE having sex and
relationships
 There are some projects in low- and middle-
income countries
 Our knowledge base is very scanty
 We need better research and more provision