It’s been sometime since we have had meetings – since the lockdown but as disabled people, we are still not confident about having face to face meetings and travelling on public transport.

At Sisters of Frida we decided to have a zoom meeting on Saturday 25th September at noon. It will be an event with a stimulating roundtable discussion with our international disabled sisters from around the world and then breakout sessions among you to discuss where you think SOF should be heading.

You can join using this Zoom link

Speakers

From the Sisters of Frida team

Agenda for the event

12:00 (noon) Start with introduction to Sisters of Frida and speakers

12:05 Roundtable with guest speakers

12:25 Discussion and questions for panel

12:35 Questions from participants

12:40 Conclusions and thank you to guest speakers

12:45 Break (15 minutes)

13:00 Breakout rooms

Questions

• What struck you about the roundtable discussion?
• How does this connect with your involvement (current or future) with Sisters of Frida?

13:45 Comfort break (15 minutes)

14:00 Feedback and what next?

14:30 End

BSL interpreters from Signalise and live captioning will be available.

Music in the interval from Miss Jacqui with thanks for permission.

Thank you to Campaign Bootcamp who generously provided funding that allowed us to make this event accessible.

Useful information

Sisters of Frida wants you to get involved! SoF has been working to build our capacity by working to make our processes more transparent and  to help streamlined so build up disabled women’s voices in all our magnificence. In order to do this we need to expand our steering group. Would you like to help steer the direction of Sisters of Frida? You will meet new people, learn and share new skill. If so, please send an email to  sisofrida@gmail.com and we will send you more information. 

The steering group is not the only way you can get involved. You can now join working groups and work on specific projects. If you are interested please get in touch at sisofrida@gmail.com

We thank EVAW and Million Women Rise for adding us to the “Never Forgotten Vigil.”

Let us not forget. In #solidarity

See also the Safe Lives report on Disabled people and domestic abuse

Our celebratory event was a great success – thank you very much for those who did make it and thank you too for those who sent messages / videos because they couldn’t make it.

Sisters of Frida celebatory event 4th May 2018 Greenwich Yacht Club. Filmed by Lucy Fyson and edited by Leonore Schick. Music from TRG Banks – Milton Milton.

photos taken by Wasi Daniju at the event are at the SOF flickr account but to give you an idea….

 

There were quite a few disabled women at the Women of the World London Festival 2018, some of whom were connected to Sisters of Frida.

Here is Nidhi Goyal’s keynote speech at the Power & Protest: Art, Activism and Disability panel for Sisters of Frida

subtitles/captions to follow soon

here are the photos of the event from the Sisters of Frida’s Flickr account

and at the instagram account

Power & Protest: Art, Activism and Disability

Blue Bar, Level 4, Royal Festival Hall
Sunday 11th March 11.30am – 12.30pm

From leadership on human rights to artwork informed by the politics of disability, disabled women are at the forefront of global grassroots activism. Come hear why any campaign for gender equality must include disabled women’s voices.

Key note speaker – Nidhi Goyal – Comedian and activist working on diability and gender rights. Nidhi is the founder and director of ‘Rising Flame’ a Mumbai based NGO working for disabled women and youth and is also the Sexuality and Disability Program Director at Mumbai-based non-profit Point of View. Appointed to the prestigious civil society advisory group of UN women’s Executive Director, she sits on the advisory board of “Voice” and on the board of AWID (Assoc. for Women’s Rights in Development).

 

Michelle Baharier is chairing this panel .

Alumni/Fellow of the Slade School of Fine Art and winner of the Julian Sullivan award, graduate of the School of Social Entrepreneurs and the University of the Arts.

She is a practicing visual/ performance Artist working with communities to make collective art works, exhibitions, public pieces and performance.

 

 

Nabihah Islam is a published poet and has worked alongside various theatres. Her short play, ‘Home is where the heart is‘ was performed at Theatre Deli and she recently brought the British Council’s Hijabi Monologues to the Bush Theatre. She is a British Council Fellow and worked alongside the Council of Europe as a human rights activist addressing gender violence in South Asian communities and advocating for gender rights. She co-founded two development organisations, both are recognised by the British Council as emerging organisations. Nabihah is completing her Masters in Creative Writing at Brasenose College, Oxford.

Lucy Sheen is an actor, published writer, transracial adoptee and advocate for British East Asian artists and adoptee rights. Her play Under A Blood Red Moon was recently one of eight plays written by British East Asian playwrights to have been published by Oberon Books and the first anthology ever to be published in the UK of British East Asian Playwrights.

In 2015 she was one for four BAME writer|performers who presented work created under the RePlay bursary who performed an extract of about 20mins as part of Poetry International 2015.

Jess Thom is a writer, performer and activist who co-founded Touretteshero in 2010 as a creative response to her experiences of life with Tourettes Syndrome. She has performed nationally and internationally, written a book, Welcome to Biscuit Land, and worked with museums, galleries and theatres to host large scale events for disabled and non-disabled children and young people

more information on CEDAW on SOF website

and on the Women Resource Centre

WRC contact:     Simma Rai cedaw@wrc.org.uk

SOF contact :  hello@sisofrida.org

—————————————–

Our aim

The Government has to tell the United Nations about women’s rights in the UK.

 

We are collecting experiences from women across England to give to the United Nations. They will use these when they question the UK Government.

 

We want to be sure that disabled women are included. This report will reinforced what DDPOs wrote to the UNCPRD committee in last year’s examination in Geneva. But we will focus more on disabled women and girls’ issues.

 

Please tell us:

• What the problems are, in your own words – we are interested in your personal experiences
• Links to any evidence (research reports if you have them)
• what the government has/has not done since the last time it reported in 2013, and
• your recommendations for what needs to be done.

NB we are reporting on the period from 2013 to date.

 

We can only give a very short report to the United Nations – only 6,600 words!

We are interested in any information you can give us. Some of the areas that the UN will look at include:

 

 

• Trafficking and Prostitution               

• Healthcare – how the NHS supports accessibility of healthcare for disabled women

• Political and Public Life – whether disabled women are properly represented

• Economic and Social Benefits  – social security payments, universal credit, PIP etc

• Rural Women – the special needs of women outside towns and cities including public transport, slow wifi speeds and access to disability services

• Nationality  – special needs of disabled migrant women

• Equality Before the Law – are disabled women equal?

• Education – access to schools, colleges and university for disabled women and girls

• Marriage and Family Life – disabled women’s rights to a family life

• Employment – access to good quality work, and support to work (Access to Work)

• Violence Against Women and Girls – particular problems for disabled women, for example, domestic violence, or such violence against disabled women

 

 

Your evidence will be published unless you tell us otherwise.

Let us know if you want:

☐ EITHER your evidence to be completely confidential, OR

☐ to be shared with the Equality and Human Rights Commission only.

 

Timescale

The deadline for evidence and information is 28 February 2018. Send your evidence to: cedaw@wrc.org.uk

There is more information here

General information – https://thewomensresourcecentre.org.uk/our-work/cedaw/

The Government’s own report is here –  http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fGBR%2f8&Lang=en

 

The last shadow report from women’s groups is here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/GBR/INT_CEDAW_NGO_GBR_13333_E.pdf

 

If you have any questions please contact us.

Your experience

 

Any Links to Evidence? Yes/No

 

Has the Government taken action?

 

Your recommendations

 

CEDAW-shadow-report-template-for-written-evidence-from-disabled-women-final (Word doc. for downloading)

Some Sisters of Frida went to ENIL 2017 Freedom Drive,  which brought together 300 Independent Living activists from 19 countries in Brussels.

It brought an an end to a week of promoting independent living, peer support, protest and celebration of disability rights. The Freedom Drive has brought together around 300 independent living activists from 19 countries, from as far East as Albania, to Norway in the North.

Among the main Freedom Drive demands were the end to institutionalisation of disabled people across Europe, access to personal assistance in all countries, full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the end to cuts to support services and benefits for disabled people.

Lani Parker and Michelle Daley said:

 

We also met some MEPs, Anthea McIntyre MEP, Keith Taylor MEP, Molly Scott-Cato MEP, Wajid Khan MEP, and Daniel Dalton MEP, among others to ask them questions on independent living, accessibility, inclusive education, disability rights after Brexit, freedom of labour as part of the EU among other issues.

​

The night before the march we met up with other British attendees for dinner, including Sarah Rennie (Sisters of Frida, Steering Group member) , who had to leave before the march.

We were outside the European Parliament the next day to join the other ENIL Freedom marchers on the streets of Brussels.

Thank you all for all who came with us. Thank you for ENIL to organising this and we wish Zara Todd, as incoming director, the best for the future.

More photos at Sisters of Frida Flickr account.

The UK Government’s claim to be a ‘world leader in disability issues’ has today been crushed by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee has released damning Concluding Observations on the UK, following its first Review of the government’s compliance with the Convention.

The Observations conclude last week’s public examination of the UK Government’s record on delivering disabled people’s rights. The examination was declared by the UK rapporteur Mr Stig Langvad, to be “the most challenging exercise in the history of the Committee”. Mr Langvad raised deep concerns on the UK Government’s failure to implement the rights of disabled people. He also noted the government’s “lack of recognition of the findings and recommendations of the (2016) Inquiry” which found ‘grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s human rights’.

Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) were hailed as the genuine “world leaders” for their efforts in bringing to light the injustices and human rights violations inflicted on disabled people in the UK.

The UK Delegation of Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations has issued the following joint statement:

“Today the UN(CRPD) Committee has, once again, condemned the UK Government’s record on Deaf and Disabled People’s human rights. They have validated the desperation, frustration and outrage experienced by Deaf and Disabled people since austerity and welfare cuts began. It is no longer acceptable for the UK Government to ignore the strong and united message of the disability community.

UK Government representatives committed during the review to rethinking the way they support Deaf and Disabled People to monitor our rights. We welcome this commitment.  However, we are clear that our involvement must be genuine and inclusive and that we cannot accept anything less than progress on delivering the human rights enshrined in the Convention, and denied us for too long.

DDPOs have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with following a long campaign of challenging the Government’s blatant disregard for the lives of Deaf and disabled people in the UK. The unity and solidarity demonstrated by the Committee and the UK Independent Mechanism in supporting our calls for justice continue to strengthen us.

Michelle Daley, a Director of Sisters of Frida, said –

“The rights of disabled women and girls have not been systematically mainstreamed in the UK. The UN is obviously recognising this.

The proper collection of disaggregated data has been repeatedly called for by UN rapporteurs. Gaps in data mask the multiple discrimination faced by disabled women.

We welcome the Committee’s recommendation that the State allocates resources to support representative organisations for disabled women and girls and secure our strategic involvement and contributions in legislation. Perhaps this would, in future, avoid abhorrent situations like the ‘best interests’ defence for carers committing coercive and controlling abuse which the Government introduced without consulting us.”

Notes to editors:

•     The Concluding Observations are published on the Committee’s webpage (UK section) : http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1158&Lang=en
•     DDPOs across the UK have worked in coproduction to collect evidence and compile the reports through the Review process. The delegation of DDPOs present in Geneva w/c 21st August 2017 included Disability Rights UK, Inclusion Scotland, Disability Wales, Disability Action Northern Ireland, the Reclaiming our Futures Alliance, British Deaf Association, People First Scotland, Alliance for Inclusive Education, Inclusion London, Disabled People Against Cuts, Equal Lives, Black Triangle, Sisters of Frida, Black Mental Health UK.
•     Contributions were also received from Innovations in Dementia, HFT and Intersex NGO Coalition.
•     On 23rd and 24th August the examination of the UK Government took place in Geneva, with the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled People. The report of the dialogue can be found here, with links to submission documents: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21993&LangID=E
•     The committee postponed its assessment of the UK (originally due in 2015) to investigate a complaint of the violation of disabled people’s rights as a result of welfare reform. This was brought under the optional protocol of the Convention. The findings expressed concern of grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s human rights. That investigation looked only at a part of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People – with a particular focus on the impact of austerity measures and welfare reform. The Review looked at a much wider set of issues, including our laws on mental health and mental capacity, policies on employment and education and more.

Inquiry report, 2016: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/InquiryProcedure.aspx

•     A lay person’s guide to the Review process and Examination can be found here: www.disabilitywales.org/crpd17
•     Statistics about disabled women: https://www.sisofrida.org/resources/disabled-women-facts-and-stats/
•     Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 created a new offence of controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship. It is a defence for accused abusers to show that they believe their behaviour was in the victim’s best interests and reasonable.