Winner, National Human Rights Award 2001

This document was published by:

Winner, National Human Rights Award 2001

Winner, National Violence Prevention Award 1999

Winner, Tasmanian Women's Safety Award 2008

Certificate of Merit, Australian Crime & Violence Prevention Awards 2008

Nominee, French Republic's Human Rights Prize 2003

Nominee, UN Millennium Peace Prize for Women 2000

PO Box 605, Rosny Park 7018 TAS

Ph: +61 3 62448288 Fax: +61 3 62448255

ABN: 23 627 650 121

Email:

Web: www.wwda.org.au

September 2011

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without written permission from Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA). All possible care has been taken in the preparation of the information contained in this document. WWDA disclaims any liability for the accuracy and sufficiency of the information and under no circumstances shall be liable in negligence or otherwise in or arising out of the preparation or supply of any of the information aforesaid.

Contents Page

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)……………………………………………………………………………………………………

WWDA Management Committee and Staff......

WWDA’s Strategic Goals 2010 - 2015......

A Word from the President......

WWDA Executive Directors Report......

Our Performance & Achievements 2010 - 2011......

Promoting the human rights of women with disabilities nationally & internationally......

Undertaking systemic advocacy in specific areas of concern to women with disabilities......

Building on our key role in the production and dissemination of information, publications & research......

Developing the internal & external operations of WWDA......

Contributing to Government policies affecting women with disabilities......

WWDA Financial Statements 2010-2011 …………..

Appendix 1: Feedback

Appendix 2: WWDA Representation 2010 - 2011

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)

· is the peak non-government organisation for women with all types of disabilities in Australia

· is managed and run by women with disabilities and is the only organisation of its kind in Australia

· enables the voices of women with disabilities to be heard and represents their collective interests

· is an inclusive human rights organisation which works systemically at a national and international level

· undertakes work that is grounded in a rights based framework

· links gender and disability issues to a full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights

· is a leading and resilient voice in national human rights debates

· is internationally acknowledged as a leader in the growing international disabled women’s movement

· is committed to promoting and advancing the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women with disabilities

WWDA Management Committee and Staff

Sue Salthouse - President /
Margie Charlesworth – Vice President /
Pamela Menere - Treasurer /
Rayna Lamb – Secretary

Helen Meekosha /
Annie Parkinson /
Samantha Jenkinson /
Karin Swift

Sheila King /
Vicki Alipasinopoulos /
Carolyn Frohmader
Executive Director /
Shirley Raspin
Office & Finance Manager

WWDA’s Strategic Goals

2010 - 2015

1. Promote and protect the rights of women with disabilities nationally and internationally.

2. Undertake systemic advocacy in specific areas of concern to women with disabilities.

3. Continue to build on WWDA’s key role in the consolidation, production and dissemination of high quality information, publications and research on issues relevant to women with disabilities.

4. Further develop the internal and external operations of the organisation in order to achieve its vision, goals and objectives.

5. Contribute to the development and implementation of Australian Government policies affecting women with disabilities.

A Word from the President

Sue Salthouse

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Opening words of Article 1 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

For many women with disabilities, discussions about “human rights” are an academic and esoteric indulgence. For many of us the daily urgent needs are for safety, money for living - housing, food, equipment, household help, and importantly acknowledgement of their basic personhood. WWDA is grounded by this knowledge when undertaking our systemic advocacy.

In this Annual Report, you can read of the many activities that WWDA has undertaken, arranged according to their contribution to the realisation of our Strategic Goals. In 2010-2011, it has been exciting to have direct representation at the UN in New York. We have also had input to Government and NGO reports for the Universal Periodic Review and UN Conventions; contributed to domestic law reform processes and development of national policy plans; and continued dissemination of information to our members, organisations, governments and other individuals. Our policy paper 'Assessing the situation of women with disabilities in Australia: A human rights approach'; is an important, comprehensive human rights reference work.

WWDA thanks the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) for its funding support. This funding enables us to employ our full time Executive Director and our part-time Office & Finance Manager, and operate our small office in Hobart. On behalf of the Management Committee and all our members, I want to give special thanks to the WWDA staff. The visible work produced by WWDA, as outlined in this report is only the tip of the iceberg. Spend half a day in the WWDA office, and you will get some insight as to the influx of requests and the frenetic pace that is constant. I sincerely thank Carolyn and Shirley for all that they contribute to WWDA. My thanks are also due to Margie Charlesworth for her support and input as the WWDA Vice-President and to all members of the Management Committee for their wise counsel and assistance.

WWDA looks forward to 2012. I am optimistic that our decade-long efforts to protect the reproductive rights of women and girls with disabilities will bring about the necessary legislative change to protect all from non-therapeutic or forced sterilisation. WWDA will continue to collaborate closely with disability, feminist and social justice organisations, national and internationally, to ensure that the voice of women with disabilities becomes a force to be reckoned with and recognised.

Sue Salthouse

WWDA President

WWDA Executive Director’s Report

Carolyn Frohmader

The 2010-2011 year proved to be full of very significant achievements for WWDA. Our work has had considerable impact, both within and outside Australia, and has consolidated our role not only as the national representative organisation for women with disabilities in Australia, but also as a highly regarded, leading voice in national and international efforts to protect and promote the human rights of women and girls with disabilities.

Our work to enable and represent the collective interests of women with disabilities in the international human rights treaty monitoring processes, has been particularly rewarding. Our member Christina Ryan did an outstanding job in New York, representing women with disabilities at both the 46th session of the Monitoring Committee for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the 55th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW). Our advocacy and lobbying efforts in both these process were highly successful. The CEDAW Committee took great notice of our input and the CEDAW Concluding Observations made very strong recommendations regarding the need for urgent action by Australian Governments in relation to women with disabilities, particularly in the areas of forced sterilisation, violence, leadership and participation.

We intensified our efforts to promote the reproductive rights of women and girls with disabilities, focusing on lobbying Governments and other key stakeholders to demand an end to the practice of non-therapeutic and forced sterilisation of girls and women with disabilities. Our work in this area has been recognised internationally, and has seen us become an active and key stakeholder in a new Global Campaign to stop forced and coerced sterilisation of women in different parts of the world and among different populations. We continued to work hard nationally and internationally to promote the right of women with disabilities to freedom from violence, in all its forms, and have seen some improvement in the inclusion of women with disabilities in national, state and territory violence prevention frameworks, strategies and initiatives.

We researched and published our major Policy Paper entitled 'Assessing the situation of women with disabilities in Australia: A human rights approach'; continued to publish our international quarterly Newsletter ‘WWDA-News’, further developed our website, disseminated information to our extensive and ever-growing membership, and authored chapters on women with disabilities for major texts in the fields of law, and disability theory. We presented papers and showcased our work at international, national, and state based conferences and forums, developed new partnerships and collaborative relationships, and further strengthened our existing relationships within the disability, women’s, and human rights sectors.

We provided advice to Governments on policy, program and service delivery issues emerging from our membership, and advised Governments on the impact of social policy initiatives on women with disabilities. We undertook an extensive amount of work to inform the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into a National Disability Care and Support Scheme, and worked hard to ensure the lived experiences which arise from gender, with attention to the perspective of women and girls in particular, are considered in the development of the Scheme and addressed in its implementation.

Through a Satisfaction Survey, we asked our constituents what they thought of our performance as the national representative body for women with disabilities. We asked them what they thought about how we go about our work on their behalf. The response was overwhelmingly supportive. Our organisation is highly respected, seen as an organisation of integrity, relevance, commitment, rigour and transparency. Whilst we are delighted that our organisation and our work is so highly valued, we will continue to look at ways to improve our performance.

Our organisation has only two paid staff and relies heavily on the commitment, goodwill and dedication of our Management Committee and members. As Executive Director, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sue Salthouse (WWDA President) and Margie Charlesworth (WWDA Vice President), for their dedication to their roles. My thanks go to the WWDA Management Committee members for their contribution and support over the past 12 months, and to the many WWDA members who have undertaken representative work on our behalf over the past year. A big thanks too, as always, to Shirley Raspin, WWDA’s Office & Finance Manager for her exceptional work in the WWDA Office.

And lastly, but by no means least, I’d like to make special mention of those who responded to our urgent call for funds to help us pay for Christina Ryan and her support worker to get to the 46th session of CEDAW in New York. I’d like to acknowledge the support of Senator Sue Boyce, the Bendigo Bank (Calwell & Wanniassa branches), the International Women’s Rights Action Watch (Asia-Pacific), and the former Womenspeak Alliance. I’d also like to acknowledge the support of our member organisation Advocacy for Inclusion in supporting Christina to engage in this important work.

The following report gives a brief synopsis of WWDA’s performance and key achievements over the past 12 months.

Carolyn Frohmader, WWDA Executive Director

What we did to promote the human rights of women with disabilities nationally and internationally

WWDA Member, Christina Ryan, outside the UN Building, 1st Avenue, New York.

We were represented at the 46th session of the review of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), held in New York in July 2010. WWDA member Christina Ryan, selected as part of the seven member Australian NGO delegation, had the opportunity to speak directly with the CEDAW Committee and was extremely effective in lobbying and advocating to ensure the issues facing women with disabilities were kept in the forefront of the NGO delegation’s efforts. In late 2010, the CEDAW Monitoring Committee released its Concluding Observations on Australia’s performance regarding the implementation of CEDAW. The Committee clearly took great notice of WWDA’s input, and made very strong recommendations regarding the need for urgent action by Australian governments in relation to women with disabilities, particularly in the areas of forced sterilisation, leadership and participation, and violence. Included in the specific recommendations is a call for the Australian Government to enact national legislation prohibiting, except where there is a serious threat to life or health, the sterilisation of girls, regardless of whether they have a disability, and of adult women with disabilities in the absence of their fully informed and free consent. We continue to be a member of the NGO CEDAW Advisory Group, which in 2011, developed a CEDAW Action Plan for Government regarding the implementation of the CEDAW Concluding Observations. We also participated in a number of cross-government Round Tables to analyse and prioritise the CEDAW Concluding Observations.

We contributed to the Government and NGO reports to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Australia. As a member of the UPR NGO Working Party, we also contributed detailed input to the Joint NGO Submission to the UPR of Australia, where our priority issues of sterilisation and violence were included in the final NGO Report. The Australian Government appeared before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 31 January 2011, where 50 countries raised concerns with Australia’s human rights performance and made 145 recommendations to the Australian Government on how to improve its human rights performance. Recommendation 39 (put forward by Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany) specifically deals with the issue of sterilisation of girls and women with disabilities and calls on the Australian Government to enact national legislation prohibiting the use of non-therapeutic sterilisation of children, regardless of whether they have a disability, and of adults with disability without their informed and free consent.