In 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, which the disability movement seized on to campaign for the criminalisation of forced sterilisation and to enhance protection for women and girls with disabilities against abuse and violence. While the original proposal did not include the criminalisation of forced sterilisation, the European Parliament took the disability movement’s demands into account and added them to their negotiation position.
However, EU countries – at the level of the Council of the EU – have refused the inclusion of the crime of forced sterilisation during negotiations. Not only that but even the crime of rape based on lack of consent was excluded, according to lead negotiator MEP Frances Fitzgerald. She adds that the French and the German governments are particularly to blame. Their lack of willingness to accept the criminalisation of rape blocked the approval of a more extensive list of crimes.
The European Parliament will now have to decide if they accept the position of the Council in order to adopt the directive.
We renew our call on EU Member States to end violence against women and girls with disabilities in all their diversity, and in particular to end forced sterilisation.
We call on the EU institutions to guarantee sufficient protection of the rights of women and girls with disabilities in the directive, including accessible information and services for victims, as well as aggravating circumstances for perpetrators of violence against a person with a disability.