Young Persons With Disabilities

This report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) spotlights the issues that youth with disabilities face worldwide, such as gender-based violence, and identifies the opportunities to foster their social inclusion and ensure their sexual and reproductive health rights. Young people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to violence, which is often exacerbated across gender and socioeconomic lines; furthermore, they are often seen as needing information about their sexual and reproductive health, rights, and lives. This rights-based qualitative study is grounded in an extensive literature review, interviews with national and international experts, and observations from field visits in four countries, distributed questionnaire surveys, and received technical advisory review and input. Broadly, the findings emphasize that youth with disabilities face persistent social disadvantages stemming from discrimination, stigma and prejudice, and the routine failure to incorporate disability into building policy and program designs.

In addition to elucidating the best prevention and protection measures within legal and health systems, the report provides recommendations for those creating programs which will ensure that disabled youth are still able to achieve the full enjoyment of their human rights in their everyday lives. The three main overarching recommendations are to: foster inclusion and participation of young persons with disabilities in the design and implementation of the programs affecting their lives; promote equality in both policy and practice; and end stigma and discrimination through awareness raising, training, and other initiatives that include all sectors of society. The full report is accompanied by a summary brief and an “easy read” version.