Barbara Earth

Barbara Earth is currently a Research Fellow with the Deaf Studies Dept., Gallaudet University. She has also taught as an adjunct Assoc. Prof. for the International Development masters program at Gallaudet, teaching the course “Gender, Disability and Development.” That course looks at the intersection of gender and disability/deaf oppression, and the applicable human rights remedies.  Barbara is fourth generation late deaf but is the first in her family to learn ASL. She had the great fortune to attend Gallaudet University as a grad special student in Deaf Studies 2008-2010. She travels extensively from her home in Athens, OH.

Gender and Deaf Oppression in Developing Countries: Human Rights Violations and Human Rights Remedies
 

Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) states that “women and girls with disabilities are subject to multiple discrimination” and that measures must be taken “to ensure the full and equal enjoyment by them of all human rights…” Despite this mandate, most disability/Deaf advocates are most knowledgeable on rights violations based on disability, and focus exclusively on those aspects of oppression. They are less knowledgeable about gender-based oppression and the human rights documents that counter it. Therefore Deaf girls’ and women’s human rights continue to be compromised in shameful and unmentioned ways, even if their linguistic and cultural rights are being realized.
While there is ample documentation that women with disabilities are more likely to experience gender-based violence and abuse than women without disabilities, there is less data specific to Deaf women. This paper will summarize the available information on gender-based violations experienced by Deaf women, drawing on both published and anecdotal information from my, my colleagues’ and students’ observations across the developing world. Unfortunately, sex work, rape, violence, HIV infection and absence of recourse are common aspects of Deaf women’s lives, but these topics are often swept under the rug because of ignorance and/or shame.
The decade of the 1990s is known as the women’s rights decade because the international women’s movement was very active in United Nations processes. Several important international meetings and agreements resulted, including the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993); the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (1994); and the Beijing Platform for Action (1995). The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (1975) was also further empowered. The paper will cover key points from these documents so that disability/Deaf advocates can be responsive to ALL of Deaf women’s rights.