YOUNG PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: GLOBAL STUDY ON ENDING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE, AND REALISING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
Around the world, more than 1 billion women and men and boys and girls are living with some form of disability.1 Although most people will experience disability at some point in their lives, understanding the meaning of disability and its impact on the ability of each individual to be active participants in social, economic, sociocultural, and political life remains a challenge. Physical, social, and legal barriers continue to limit access to education, health care including sexual and reproductive health (SRH), employment, leisure activities, and family life for millions of persons with disabilities worldwide.2 These barriers can be most acute for young persons with disabilities. Globally, an estimated 180 to 200 million persons with disabilities are between the ages of 10 and 24.3 Young persons with disabilities4 are like young people everywhere: They have dreams and ambitions, interests and desires, and hopes for their futures. But young persons with disabilities face persistent social disadvantages worldwide stemming from discrimination, stigma and prejudice, and the routine failure to incorporate disability into building policy, and programme designs. Physical, socio-economic, socio-cultural, and legal barriers continue to limit access to education, health care including SRH, employment, leisure activities, and family life for millions of persons with disabilities worldwide, and violence against young persons with disabilities is widespread.5
Persons with disabilities, including young persons with disabilities, are at greater risk of living in poverty than are their peers without disabilities.6 They are much more vulnerable to violence, including gender-based violence (GBV), and are less likely to attend school.
They receive too little information about puberty, sexuality, and healthy relationships, introducing new vulnerabilities to sexual exploitation and denying them the rights to live satisfying sexual lives, choose to be married, and have children.
Corporate Author: UNFPA
Publication Year: 2018
To be published on country nodes: Burundi
Theme: Access to SRHR Services
URL: http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/51936_-_UNFPA_Global_Study_on_Disability_-_web.pdf