A Study On Feminist Disability Justice

The modern rights system can be seen as a commitment to respect human dignity and equality.In practice,however,not everyone’s rights are adequately protected.Groups that are oppressed by various factors are mostly in poor position in terms of rights protection,and women with disabilities(WWD)are typical of them.As a synthesis of disability and female characteristics,the rights dilemma faced by WWD for a long time have not been paid attention to by the academic community,especially at the level of justice.This thesis with help of gender analysis,case study and other sociological research methods,from the perspective of women’s life course,reveal the specific rights dilemma and the causes,and reflects on the way in which traditional justice has exiled WWD,thus showing its limitations.In order to cope with this limitation and truly solve the rights dilemma of WWD,we need construct a feminist disability Justice,and on this basis,explore a plan to improve the triple obligation system of the country,society and citizens in abstract ideas,hidden structure and concrete measures.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this thesis contains five chapters and more than 170,000 words.Chapter 1 aims to explain the origin of WWD’s rights.If WWD try to fight for rights in the name of the community,it is necessary to go beyond the understanding of model of aggregates based on collective symptoms and form social groups based on universal recognition.WWD as a social group were ignored by the mainstream women’s movement due to deviations from overall goal setting,a situation that did not change until the early 1980 s.The advance of the women’s movement and the wide spread of the feminist texts inspired certain of the disabilities among feminists.Unfortunately,after they became disabled,they gradually saw that feminism was unfriendly to WWD,then embarked on the path of independence for their own rights,build up rights organization.With the facilitation of these organizations,WWD were able to participate in the Fourth World Conference on Women.Hundreds of WWD overcame many difficulties and come to Beijing to hold NGO forums,speak out,lobby participants and organizers,and initiate peaceful demonstration.Their rights claims are ultimately fully reflected in the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.Since then,with the joint efforts of WWD and their rights organizations around the world,the voices of WWD have been paid more and more attention,and the issue of WWD’s rights has become a global political issue.These efforts and progress fully reflected in international human rights law,most notably article6 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and general comment No.3(2016)issued by the Commission on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Chapter 2 focuses on the types of WWD’s rights that are directly related to the gender quality of women,with the help of the perspective of life course,in order to present the rights dilemma of WWD.Specifically including: first,the dilemma of menstrual management.In lowand middle-income countries,WWD face barriers to access to water and sanitation,which poses much inconvenience.“Menstrual poverty”,which leads to can’t buy menstrual products,is another obstacle faced by WWD.In addition,certain types of menstrual products may not be available to certain types of WWD.Second,sexual rights are impaired.On one hand,sexual pleasure for WWD is not possible.On the other hand,the disabilities make WWD more vulnerable to sexual illegal and criminal acts.Third,involuntarily married.WWD are generally considered unfit for marriage.Even if WWD enter into marriage,their marriage autonomy is difficult to achieve,and this unfreedom will continue until the dissolution of the marriage.Fourth,the violation of the reproductive rights of WWD.The systemic prejudice and discrimination lead to continuing violations of the reproductive rights of them,most typical are forced sterilization,contraception,abortion.Fifth,parental rights are more likely to be violated.During the marriage,WWD are seen as unfit mothers.This negative concept prevents disabled mothers from becoming caregivers,and their custody may be forcibly terminated.At the time or after divorce,it is difficult for disabled mothers to obtain custody and achieve visitation.Sixth,the protection dilemma of health right during menopause.Physical and mental changes caused by menopause can endanger women’s health,and WWD in menopause face more serious or special challenges to their health.Chapter 3 discusses the causes of the rights dilemma of WWD from multiple dimensions.The first dimension is the biological reality.For disability and women,the discrimination they face is based on physical structure or biological reality.WWD are a collection of disability and female physiological characteristics,and their combined effects cause the special vulnerability of WWD.The second dimension is the negative culture.Cultural imperialism,based on negative cognition about biological reality of disability and women,shapes stereotypes of WWD.By this reason,WWD are classified as “others” and thus collectively ignored.The extension of stereotype in the political,social and rule of law can directly lead to the loss of the rights of WWD.The third dimension is a public-private dualism formed based on the extension of cultural imperialism to the political and social sphere.Since the rights dilemma of WWD mainly exists in the private field,the non-intervention in this field brought by the public-private dualism base on gender will directly lead to the neglect of it.This neglect will also be more obvious by disabled reducing the degree of women’s liberation and strengthening the role of public-private dualism on WWD.The fourth dimension is the extension of cultural imperialism at legislation.Specifically,the absence of WWD in law and the law contrary to the realistic needs of them.The fifth dimension is the judicial remedy.Access to justice is one of the most important paths to protect civil and political rights,but WWD whose rights have been violated not have access to justice effectively,judicial activities can also violate their rights.Chapter 4 focuses on a modified theory of justice,feminist disability justice.It is based on the following cognitive logic: critical the traditional justice for neglect of WWD,and current feminist and disability research inadequate in absorbing each other’s perspective;on this basis,the possibility of combining feminist and disability perspective has been revealed,then form feminist disability research;the contributions of the core theories and methods derived from feminist disability research are incorporated into the framework of traditional justice to overcome the shortcomings of it ignores WWD;provide a method or approach to solve the injustice problems faced by WWD in the framework of justice,form feminist disability justice.It should be made clear that feminist disability justice is a supplement and development of the traditional justice,which contains three key elements: the first is to go beyond the emphasis on resource allocation,“slaughter” and “oppression” as the starting point to explore justice,to reveal the four injustice encountered by WWD-exploitation,marginalization,power deprivation,and violence;the second is from mutual benefit to care,with speciality,difference,situational concern to balance hollow and barren in right language brought by universalization;the third focus is on the capability improvement,through the correct treatment of animal nature or nature,focus on human rights or rights protection,and promote the realization the goal of giving every WWD the opportunity to become her own master.Chapter 5 extends to the conception of three-dimensional obligations of the state,society,citizens in abstract ideas,hidden structure and concrete measures,guided by feminist disability justice.From abstract point,state,society,citizens are necessary to update the ideas that affect the negative attitude towards WWD,to realize the transformation from “autonomous myth” to dependency theory,welfare to capability,same logic to differential politic,formal equality to substantive equality,and use more friendly ideas to WWD to guide them action.Considering that the rights dilemma of WWD is usually based on structural injustice,state,society,citizens are necessary to further adjust the hidden structure formed on the basis of a series of negative ideas while updating ideas.By weakening the division of the public-private spheres,blurring the boundaries between normal and abnormal,and re-examining the value measurement model of country’s development,we can create a favorable political and social environment for WWD’s rights protection.The practical measures also need to adjust.These measures connect abstract ideas and hidden structure on one side,concrete practice on the other,which is of great significance to the implementation of rights.On the national side,it is necessary to carry out targeted data statistics,improve the law for rights protection,enhancing the strengthen of judicial remedy,and strengthen the role of national mechanisms.For society,should actively guide the reform of discriminatory culture,create a good barrier-free social environment,and increase social support.Specific to citizens,ordinary citizen and relative of WWD should actively perform their obligations based on their own positions to help protect WWD’s rights.