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.

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.

UN Women is fully committed to mainstreaming disability inclusion and intersectionality throughout its work, as laid out in the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022–2025. The goal is to ensure a more systematic approach to ensuring the rights of women and girls with disabilities across UN Women’s areas of work.

Disability, gender, and discrimination are closely interlinked, with one in five women experiencing a disability-related exclusion. To address this, UN Women developed a corporate strategy for the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities built on a multi-pronged approach that includes providing normative guidance, integrated policy advice, operational support, and technical assistance for programme and capacity-development. The approach helps ensure that initiatives are both gender-responsive and inclusive of the rights of persons with disabilities.

This brief overviews UN Women’s approach to disability inclusion and intersectionality.

Empowered by the UN-SWAP 2.0, UN Women is able to identify and coordinate the system-wide adoption of good practices and harmonized products that can be scaled from one entity to another. UN Women selects and publishes a series of good practices from various entities on annual basis, normally through the UN-SWAP review reports and the updated technical guidance. This catalog aggregates various best practices under UN-SWAP 2.0 indicators, updated in 2022.

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.
 

This document was written in collaboration with UN Women's Disability Inclusion and Intersectionality Portfolio (DIIP) within the context of the Disability-Inclusive COVID-19 Response and Recovery Global Programme in the country, with support from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD). Considering the intersection of disability, gender and violence from a human rights perspective for a life free of violence for all women

This document was written in collaboration with UN Women's Disability Inclusion and Intersectionality Portfolio (DIIP) within the context of the Disability-Inclusive COVID-19 Response and Recovery Global Programme at the country level, with support from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD). Leaving no one behind is a shared responsibility of all United Nations System staff in the process of supporting States, especially during the COVID-19

The objective of these Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines is to provide tailored guidance for personnel in the field, especially in mission settings, to help increase the representation of women and accelerate efforts to reach parity in the UN system

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 UN System-wide Dashboard on Gender Parity is a joint initiative by UNDP and UN Women to strengthen system-wide monitoring and data collection on the representation of women and men in the UN system, in support of the Secretary-Generalï's System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity. The dashboard uses the latest available data, with participation from nearly 40 UN entities.

This Technical Note aims to guide UNCTs on how to mainstream gender equality considerations into planning and programming work as part of their ongoing COVID-19 response and recovery effort.

A brief overview to summarizing the impact of COVID-19 on the 17 performance indicator areas.

This guideline developed by UN Women, provides a step-by-step guidance note to produce an in-depth picture of the situation, needs and capacities of women, men, boys and girls of diverse backgrounds to inform recommendations and actions that leave no one behind.

The brief discusses the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the ability of women, girls, non-binary, transgender, and gender-non-conforming (TGNC) persons with disabilities in meeting basic need.

The present brief was developed in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and the unique challenges that this creates for women and girls with disabilities. The brief discusses actions that the UN system can implement systematically to address the needs and rights of these women and girls in COVID-19 response and recovery plans.

This compendium captures the key messages and efforts of UN system entities as they address the varied gender dimensions of the pandemic.

The checklist provides minimum requirements for integrating gender equality in the UN framework for immediate socioeconomic and health system support in response to COVID-19.

These guidelines include good practices and recommendations to help guide and support all UN entities to make progress on a better work environment.

The Enabling environment guidelines include good practices and recommendations to help guide and support all UN entities to make progress on a better work environment. The “Enabling environment guidelines for the United Nations system” focuses on three thematic areas: workplace flexibility, family-friendly policies, and standards of conduct. The “Supplementary guidance” covers also the areas of recruitment and talent management and includes a section on implementation.

The System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity balances accountability with incentives, recognises different starting points and challenges, and provides positive tools to empower and encourage staff and managers alike.