CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Habtemariam, Mahider Mulugeta |
|---|---|
| Title | Gender Based Violence, Women with Disabilities and Access to Justice: Ethiopia and Kenya |
| Summary | Globally, women with disabilities are highly vulnerable to violence due to the intersection of gender and disability. Women with disabilities in Kenya and Ethiopia need an effective and efficient response from the justice systems to specifically address the situation of women with disabilities and their vulnerability to multiple forms of discrimination. This paper argues that access to justice for women with disabilities who are victims/survivors of gender-based violence can only become a reality when justice systems fully meet accessibility standards, provide procedural, reasonable and age-appropriate accommodations let alone training of professionals of the justice system, conduct targeted awareness raising activities to sensitize women with disabilities about their rights and how to access justice. Therefore, states general legislative and practical measures should take in to account the specific needs of women with disabilities and their vulnerability to gender-based violence and multiple forms of discrimination and the importance of psycho-social support. This thesis presents a comparative analysis of Ethiopia and Kenya in light of international human right standards regarding access to justice for women with disabilities who are victims of gender based violence. It looks at international and regional human rights standards, domestic legal frameworks as well as conduct small scale field interviews in Ethiopia to get the practical situations. The laws of both countries provide protection from GBV and access to justice. Despite the existence of such protections, the legal intervention of both countries regarding access to justice for women with disabilities is deficient. Laws fail to: sufficiently address women with disabilities by taking into account the specific circumstance of women with disabilities and their vulnerability to multiple forms of discrimination; provide reasonable accommodation and see its denial as discrimination; require justice organs to raise the awareness of women with disabilities on GBV and access to justice; oblige government to train legal professionals on disability and rights of women with disabilities and include gender and age sensitive rehabilitation and reintegration measures for victims of GBV. |
| Supervisor | Mbuen, Eyong Louis |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/habtemariam_mahider.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University