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WWDA’s response focuses on the issue of ‘Sterilisation of Children with Disabilities’ (pg26, para 133 of the Draft Report) and raises WWDA’s concerns at some of the statements made in the Government’s Draft Report – specifically statements that infer that sterilisation is acceptable for children with disabilities, and that prohibiting sterilisation of minors (except in those circumstances where there is a serious threat to health or life), will somehow adversely impact on children with disabilities. WWDA’s response rejects these presumptions and expresses our concern with the integrity and scientific rigour of such statements.

WWDA’s response continues to re-iterate our position that people with disabilities have the same human rights as people without disabilities. They have the right to bodily integrity, the right to procreate, the right to sexual pleasure and expression, the right for their bodies to develop in a normal way, and the right to be parents. WWDA also re-iterates our recommendation that, through the Standing Committee of Attorney’s General (SCAG), all Australian Governments work together to develop universal legislation which prohibits sterilisation of any child unless there is a serious threat to heath or life.

A copy of the Australian Government’s Draft Fourth Report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is available from WWDA via email (wwda@wwda.org.au) or can be downloaded from the Attorney-General’s website at: www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Humanrightsandanti-discrimination_Consultation on Draft Reports under Convention on the Rights of the Child and Optional Protocol - 2008

Please download for your information and reference, a copy of the response from Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) to the Australian Government regarding the Australian Government Draft Fourth Report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

This information received from the Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)