The brief highlights UN Women’s research on disability inclusion markers alongside insights from a wide range of development partners.

The brief sheds light on the barriers faced by women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in accessing justice, and explores a series of recommendations to close the justice gap.

The study presents knowledge on the different forms of violence, its underlying causes, and the ability to access services as well as the experiences of women with disabilities in Egypt, focusing on the intersectionality between gender, disability and poverty.

This brief presents data on the legal barriers that women with disabilities face when accessing economic opportunities in 190 economies. The new data suggest that only one-quarter of economies worldwide explicitly protect and promote the rights of women with disabilities.
 

Persons with disabilities have the same rights as anyone else to participate in society. However, in practice, persons with disabilities are often not able to enjoy these rights and participate but find themselves excluded and discriminated against

This series of briefs addresses a range of issues related to the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities. Building on UN Women's corporate strategy on the issue, the objective of this series is to analyse and assess global trends across various thematic areas from a perspective of gender-responsive disability inclusion.

Accessibility and reasonable accommodation are important pillars of disability inclusion. They contribute to remove barriers to information, communication, services, products, and devices.

This brief underlines the need to mainstream disability and address the rights and demands of women with disabilities as a matter of priority to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for all women and girls. Based on available data, the brief highlights key issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment (SDG 5), ending poverty (SDG 1) and ensuring healthy lives (SDG 3) for women and girls with disabilities; and calls for closing data gaps on gender and disability.

Enshrined in the principle of "Leave No One Behind," this study report is a synthesis of key findings and recommendations from a multi country mapping of the manifestations and trends in discrimination against women and girls with disabilities in the ESA region.

The purpose of this study was to develop a variety of texts documenting case studies of good and promising practices in the area of the protection of rights and access to services for women with disabilities in East and Southern Africa (ESA) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS) provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights, and development. This webpage has links to the Strategy in various languages and to information and resources related its implementation.

OHCHR has a mandate to ensure the inclusion of the rights of persons with disabilities in the United Nations system. The webpage provides access to guidance on the human rights-based approach to disability, as well as reporting and activities mandated by the Human Rights Council, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, among others.

The ESCAP Disability Inclusion Policy is developed in line with the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS). The Policy sets out the vision of ESCAP to be a fully disability-inclusive organization.

The toolkit is developed based on the information gathered from the person with disability, organization for person with disability, CSO and government in Timor-Leste, who work in prevention of violence against women and children. The content in the toolkit is looking at the definition of person with disability, human right, gender, violence and action plan to help training provider conducting the training for service provider institutions.

The Guide supports key stakeholders to help facilitate the full inclusion and meaningful participation of women and girls with disabilities. It aims to assist in understanding of the intersectionality of human rights and provides practical recommendations for the implementation and monitoring of two key Conventions: the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

The Gender Accessibility Audit Toolkit helps practitioners and civil society identify architectural, infrastructural, information and communication barriers that prevent women and girls with disabilities from fully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms. This toolkit can be used by local governments and service providers, such as social security, health care, education services, etc. in inclusive local planning, budgeting, and the provision of services. It can also guide representatives of civil society and gender equality and disability rights advocates, and women and men with disabilities to advocate for the elimination of identified barriers.

The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender and Disability Inclusion (UNWGGDI) collected case studies for the Beijing+30 review process, looking at lessons learned and good practices on gender, disability inclusion, and intersectionality. UN Women received a total 32 case studies from six UN entities (UN Women, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, and UNOPS) and two UN Country Teams represented by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Offices in India and Honduras.

In reflection of the 12 critical areas of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, violence against women and women in power and decision-making were equally the most addressed critical areas in the case studies, while the critical areas around women and the environment as well as the girl child were equally the least addressed.

This knowledge compendium aims to share reflections for UN entities, Member States, policymakers, and civil society organizations. It synthesizes best practices, innovative approaches, and collaborative efforts to enhance sustainable development and human rights for all. By ensuring that the rights and needs of women and girls with disabilities are adequately addressed, this document reinforces the commitment of the UN system and its stakeholders to a more equitable and inclusive future.

This policy paper is focused on diverse groups of socially marginalized women with diverse disabilities. It highlights how the 12 critical areas of concern from the Beijing Platform for Action have progressed or faced continuing entrenched barriers and dealt with new challenges in the 30 years since the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.

The focus is specifically on how gender inequality and disability exclusion both compound and create unique concerns for women and girls with disabilities. As they are not homogenous, this paper takes an intersectional approach, identifying the impacts for women and girls with disabilities facing numerous forms of discrimination while having different and multiple types of disabilities. Stereotypes and social and cultural norms are discussed in relation to stigma and discrimination.

The paper also features the voices of diverse women leaders with diverse disabilities, with case studies from various low- and middle-income countries.

The paper was produced as part of the development of the global report on accelerating disability inclusion in a diverse and changing world as well as a set of accompanying documents prepared for the Global Disability Summit 2025. Funding was provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany through UNICEF.

Women and girls with disabilities continue to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. When it comes to global normative standards for disability inclusion, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) includes provisions and obligations related to gender equality. To date, however, normative standards have not been consistently translated into national, sectoral, and/or local gender-responsive, disability-inclusive policies and corresponding budgets.

Drawing on a selection of country experiences, this policy brief identifies emerging trends and practices on gender- and disability-inclusive budgeting. These include, among others:

• collection, analysis, and use of data and statistics on intersectional discrimination;
• integration of gender and disability inclusion in laws, policies, systems, and institutional practice;
• integration of gender and disability inclusion in the planning and budgeting cycle; and
• enhanced participation of women with disabilities in policy, planning, and budgeting.

The brief aims to address these gaps and promote policy discourse and reforms at global and country level.

One in five women is estimated to be living with a disability, making it crucial to study the increased risks of various forms of violence that they face.  

This synthesis review contains key insights and lessons from the experiences of 22 diverse civil society and women’s rights organizations in various contexts that were supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) special window to end violence against women and girls with disabilities between 2018 and 2023. In particular, it highlights the lessons learned about fostering collaboration, shifting mindsets, empowering women and girls with disabilities, engaging with legal and policy systems, and allowing for flexible adaptation and learning in addressing violence against women and girls with disabilities.  

These findings mean that the review: 

• contributes to developing programming that is disability specific and disability inclusive; 
• promotes the development of a knowledge base that is grounded in the realities of practitioners in the Global South; and 
• offers practical recommendations to practitioners, researchers, donors and policymakers.