Disabled Women Get Proper Protection from Violence

With the Senate’s approval of an amendment to include disability as a factor to be taken into account when women victimized by violence seek protection, Mexico takes a step further to grant equal protection to disabled women.

“This reform is an important step,” says Carlos Rios Espinosa, a senior disability rights researcher, and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “The Senate should now build on it, by ensuring that a bill currently under consideration in the Senate on the protection of women from violence, including access to shelters, is fully inclusive of women with disabilities.”

Senator Malú Micher, President of the Senate Commission for Gender Equality, received recommendations to amend the General Law for Women’s Access to Life Free from Violence. Human rights groups proposed measures to tackle intersectional discrimination, guarantee that disabled women would be able to escape from their aggressors – as they are disproportionately impacted by domestic violence – and have access to services and means of communication with Women’s Justice Centers and other shelters.