ENoMW Submission
ENoMW Recommendations on the EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2030
The European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW) calls for the enhanced EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities up to 2030 to explicitly address the specific challenges faced by women and girls with disabilities, including those who are migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
ENoMW’s recommendations highlight the urgent need for an intersectional approach across key policy areas, including violence prevention, migration and asylum, healthcare, independent living, education, employment, and data collection.
Sex-Based Violence and Disability
Sex-based violence is both a driver and a consequence of disability, particularly psycho-social disabilities. ENoMW stresses that the Strategy must recognise sex-based violence as a structural factor in the production of disability and ensure trauma-informed, rights-based and non-coercive support across all disability types.
Systemic risks within migration and asylum systems must be addressed, especially where inaccessible first assessments undermine protection, and stronger safeguards are needed to prevent detention and institutionalisation.
Migration, Asylum and Free Movement
Migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls with disabilities face distinct and compounded barriers, from exclusion from services to disrupted support across borders. The Strategy must ensure coherence with the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, guarantee continuity of healthcare and protection, and mandate accessibility and reasonable accommodation throughout all screening and asylum procedures.
Healthcare as a Fundamental Right
Access to long-term, trauma-informed healthcare is a precondition for autonomy, participation and protection. ENoMW emphasises that healthcare must be recognised as a fundamental human right, including free or fully subsidised access for migrants and asylum seekers, regardless of procedural stage.
Autonomy, Independent Living, Education and Employment
The right to autonomy is systematically undermined by institutionalisation and exclusion. The Strategy must reaffirm independent living as a fundamental right, promote community-based, sex- and migration-responsive services, and address intersecting barriers to education and employment, including through EU funding instruments.
Data, Monitoring and Accountability
Effective disability and migration policies require systematic, disaggregated data. ENoMW calls for the collection of sex-, age-, disability- and migration-disaggregated data, the identification of compounded vulnerabilities, and the meaningful participation of migrant and refugee women’s organisations in monitoring and implementation.