A/HRC/44/52/Add.2 84. Violence against women disproportionately affects women and girls who face intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination, such as indigenous women, AfroEcuadorian women, Montubio women, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, women with disabilities, migrant and refugee women, women living in rural and remote areas, and women environmental rights defenders. 1. Indigenous women, Afro-Ecuadorian women and Montubio women 85. The 2008 Constitution establishes that Ecuador is an intercultural and plurinational State, enshrines the direct and immediate enforceability of international human rights instruments, and recognizes 21 collective rights of the indigenous communes, communities, peoples and nationalities, and guarantees that the authorities must obtain their free, prior and informed consent for projects on their lands or that could affect them environmentally or culturally (art. 57). It also recognizes collective rights for Afro-Ecuadorians (art. 58). 86. Despite the progressive provisions of the Constitution, Afro-Ecuadorian and Montubio women continue to face multiple forms of exclusion and discrimination. As a result, they endure extreme forms of poverty, humiliation and the denial of their social and economic rights. Their vulnerable economic status, combined with the prevailing patriarchal values, expose them to various forms of gender-based and sexual violence. They are also more vulnerable to mistreatment by public and private companies, as they are often not requested to provide their free, prior and informed consent in decision-making processes relating to large-scale projects for the exploitation of natural resources. Moreover, when such projects are carried out, these women are rarely provided with alternative housing and livelihoods or adequate compensation. 87. Similarly, indigenous women face intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination on the grounds of gender and ethnicity, often owing to their low socioeconomic status. They also face social exclusion, particularly those living in remote areas where language barriers also hinder integration. Those forms of discrimination and exclusion create extremely difficult social conditions and manifest themselves in an alarmingly high prevalence of violence against indigenous women. Indeed, indigenous women continue to experience higher rates of domestic and family violence and more severe forms of such violence than other women, particularly those who are defending their territories from multinational mining and other extractive companies. For women who have experienced violence at the hands of foreign workers or within their own homes and communities, no culturally sensitive shelters exist that provide for their protection. 88. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned at reports suggesting that indigenous women who are environmental human rights defenders have been targeted, criticized, threatened, intimidated, subjected to surveillance and harassed, including online, because of their gender and their work. Documented incidents show that women human rights defenders, as well as their family members and intimate partners, face reprisals, death threats, verbal abuse and harassment by State and non-State actors in an attempt to undermine their work. 2. Women with disabilities 89. In line with the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD/C/ECU/CO/2-3, para. 31), the Special Rapporteur is concerned about the lack of specific provisions for the prevention of gender-based violence, neglect and abuse directed at girls and women with disabilities, particularly those with psychological or intellectual disabilities, Afro-Ecuadorian and Montubio women, indigenous women, and migrant and refugee women with disabilities in the public and private institutional and other spheres. 90. The Special Rapporteur received reports that, despite the provisions outlined in the handbook on the rights of persons with disabilities in accessing justice, compiled by the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (CONADIS) and the Judicial Council, women with psychosocial disabilities continue to face significant obstacles to obtaining access to justice. The prevalent practice of restricting the exercise of legal capacity makes it impossible for such women to initiate or participate in legal proceedings on their own behalf, and public officials, because of their prejudices, tend to doubt the credibility of their 15