Dr Supriya Akerkar

Although the UNCRPD is the guarantor for the rights of persons with disabilities, it is critiqued for conceptualizations of individualized rights, in stable contexts where rights are state-protected. We investigate how disability rights can be advanced in unstable and crisis-affected contexts in the Global South, using the case of Lebanon, which has experienced multi-layered crises. We argue that, in a disablist and unstable state,  any progress made is threatened by the absence of institutionalization of rights, and interrogate the limitations of the UNCRPD. Through a critical policy review and interviews with self-advocates and disability activists, we suggest a new model of action for disability rights affirmation in such unstable contexts by strengthening community governance, initiatives and networks; solidarity and joint actions between disability and wider civil society groups; international advocacy; and the political identity of the disability movement.

Traditional conceptions of disaster mitigation focus mainly on risk reduction practices using technology; however, disaster mitigation needs to be reconceptualized as a discursive and social intervention process in the disaster-development continuum to further women’s rights and equality and their emancipatory interests before, during, and after disasters. Such reconception would be more aligned with current formulations within the Sendai Framework of Action (2015–2030), which to an extent highlights the need to engage with gender inequalities through women’s leadership in disaster and development planning and the fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal on furthering gender equality. As discursive practices, disaster mitigation should question discrimination against and marginalization of women in disaster recoveries and development processes in different contexts. Discourse about women and gender is ingrained in the society and further perpetuated through regressive and patriarchal state policies and practices in the disaster-development continuum. A critical and progressive politics for women’s rights that furthers their equality would counter regressive discourses and their effects. Women experience discrimination through complex and multiple axes of power, such as race, class, ethnicity, and other social markers. Instead of treating women as a passive site for relief and recovery, nongovernmental organizations, both national and international, should work with women as persons with agency, voice, aspirations, and capacity to bring about policy and social change in the terrain of the disaster-development continuum. Critical humanitarianism and mobilizing women’s leadership would be a hallmark of such work. The relation between disaster mitigation and women’s rights is that of a virtuous cycle that calls for a synergy between disaster response and development goals to further women’s equality and rights. A vision for socially just and equal society must inform the relation between disaster mitigation and furthering women’s rights.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) has improved its disability inclusion and monitoring through the development of excellent disability inclusion guidance and e-learning tools. Nevertheless, despite this progress, further enhancements are stillnecessary in some areas to strengthen the embedding of disability inclusion in better and systematic ways within DG ECHO-supported programmes. This includes theintegration of an intersectionality perspective into programming and upgradingmonitoring by including sex, age and disability disaggregated data and its analysisin consistent ways. As a priority, EU humanitarian aid programming should alsoincentivise the involvement of organisations of persons with disabilities throughspecific calls and the prioritisation of proposals involving them. Moreover, theseorganisations’ capacities should be supported and implementing partners should be pushed to develop programme monitoring mechanisms and activities includingpersons with disabilities. Lastly, proactive influencing of partners in promotingimprovement to their organisational policies, practices and monitoring of disabilityinclusion should be undertaken.

This was an invited report by European Parliament (EP) and is published by the EP. The DEVE committee of the EP used this report in its workshop dated 4th March 2024 to reflect on its achievements and what could be done more to further inclusion of persons with disabilities in EU responses globally.

A key finding of this research is that gender and ageing play a distinct role in the shaping of the lives and experiences of older women and men. Older women and men face ageism, namely prejudices, stereotyping and discriminating practices because they are older. The overarching medicalised public policy discourses of dependency, decline about older women and men needs to be strongly countered through positive representations about older women and men. Local epistemologies about ageing as a life course process need to be incorporated to develop grounded positive representations of older women and men. Public policies on ageing need to be a part of the wider social policy domains which address older women and men’s constraints in holistic ways and further opportunities to live a life that they value.

More attention needs to be given to understanding lived realities of older women and men from diverse socio-cultural-economic contexts. There are lack of studies on experiences of older women and men particularly from the global south as compared to global north. Experiences of older LGBTQ persons are also not represented. More investments are needed in research and studies to close this gap in understanding.

Developing intersectional gendered understanding of ageing needs sensitive methodologies that can capture the lived diverse experiences of older women and men over their life course. The research report proposes a new 'gendered ageing and life course perspective methodological framework' incorporating three analytical strands of: gender, diversity and life course; transition conjunctures and trajectories; and narratives to uncover gendered ageing as a life course process, and to uncover diverse lived realities of older women and men.