Disability and domestic violence: protecting survivors' human rights

Abstract

Survivors with disabilities experience domestic violence both more often and differently to those who do not have a disability. The presence of impairment substantially transforms the medical, psychological, environmental, economic, legal and political factors which contribute to the occurrence of violence. Survivors of domestic violence are often highly dependent on their abuser, fear disclosing abuse and lack economic independence, and these issues may be heightened for a person who also has a disability. Domestic violence is amplified by the existence of impairment when law enforcement and medical bodies construct the survivor and their relationship with the perpetrator through an oppressive disability model. Advances in theory and international disability human rights laws may provide new and powerful avenues to critique how law and practice in Australia responds to disability domestic violence. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the first human rights convention to specifically protect survivors with disabilities from domestic violence. In this article, we use critical disability studies and the CRPD to identify limitations with Australia's responses to disability domestic violence.

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