States must eradicate violence against women and girls with sensory disabilities, IACHR says

June 27, 2025

Washington, DC—On the International Day of Deafblindness (June 27), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) calls on States to take concrete action to prevent, punish, and eradicate violence against women and girls with sensory disabilities. At the same time, the IACHR urges States to fight stereotypes that reinforce discrimination and exclusion based on the intersection of gender and disability, as well as impunity in cases involving human rights violations based on that intersection.

Women, girls, and female adolescents with disabilities face a significantly higher risk of suffering gender-based violence, relative to their peers without disabilities. In family or intimate-partner contexts, this risk may be two to four times higher. Recent research indicates that deaf women are twice as likely to suffer domestic violence. Further, while the available data remain limited, some sources suggest that, in certain States in the Americas, up to 75 percent of all deaf women have been subjected to some form of violence and that 21 percent of them have suffered sexual violence.

The IACHR has found that violence against women and girls with disabilities can not only cause further disabilities, but also worsen pre-existing disabilities and structural exclusion patterns. Limitations to exercise their legal capacity and various dependency contexts increase the risk that women and girls with disabilities will remain trapped in cycles of abuse. The lack of reasonable adaptations and accessible mechanisms to formally report abuse worsen this situation. As shown in the IACHR report The situation of the rights of persons with disabilities in the Americas, many women who survive violence face physical, communicational, and attitudinal hurdles in justice systems, where they are subjected to prejudice and additional scrutiny that lead to institutional revictimization.

The IACHR urges States to step up their efforts to ensure a life that is free from violence for all women and girls with disabilities. The IACHR calls for measures that enable deaf, deafblind, deaf-mute, and blind women and women with other types of disabilities or multiple disabilities to access autonomous livelihoods and effective judicial remedies. All necessary adaptations must be adopted to enable women and girls with disabilities to be able to fully exercise and enjoy their rights. These adaptations include sign language interpreters, tactile interpreters, and alternative forms of communication.

The IACHR is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS) whose mandate is based on the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. Its mission is to promote and defend human rights throughout the Americas and to serve as an advisory body to the OAS in this area. The IACHR consists of seven independent members elected by the OAS General Assembly who serve in a personal capacity and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 130/25

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