The women with disabilities in Moldova meet with obstacles in exercising their sexual and reproductive rights, being often stigmatized, discriminated and constrained in taking decisions related to the private life, sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, couple relations and birth of children. These do not have the necessary knowledge about their sexual and reproductive health and do not know where they can seek help. The conclusion is contained in a report made public by the Reproductive Health Training Center, IPN reports.
The report presents the results of the analysis of interviews, conclusions and recommendations of the respondents and a working group and also contains the analysis of the legal framework from the angle of the international disability and gender standards.
Victoria Botan, public relations specialist of the Association “Motivatie”, said the observance of the rights of persons with disabilities does not depend on one social player only, but also on the mass media, expert NGOs and authorities that implement policies to promote the sexual rights and health of women with disabilities. But the women should know their rights and demand that these should be respected and there will be place for change then.
Victoria Botan also said that being a person with locomotor disabilities, she personally confronted the inappropriate behavior of doctors and this was a very unpleasant experience. “It happened in adolescence. I didn’t plan to have a child then and I was told something like “do you need this?”. I didn’t continue the subject, but it was very unpleasant. I then went to another specialist and learned to be more selective when choosing specialists,” she related.
Ion Oboroceanu, lawyer who represents the Law Center of Causeni, called on the representatives of the UN to visit districts as this aspect there is fully ignored. The persons with special needs do not have access to public institutions, such as health facilities, tutelage authorities and social assistance institutions. It is regrettable that the public institutions didn’t fully realize that Moldova ratified multiple international treaties and conventions for ensuring the legal rights of these groups of people so that they are not marginalized. The rights should not only be declared, but also respected.
Veaceslav Balan, National Coordinator of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, voiced hope that the report and the solutions suggested by this will be fully exploited when working out public policies.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there are 184,300 persons with disabilities in Moldova, which is 5.2% of the population. Women represent 48% of them.
