A/HRC/20/5 18. Some groups of women with disabilities, including indigenous women, migrant women, and women belonging to ethnic, linguistic, religious and other minorities face even greater risks of violence due to complex intersectional forms of discrimination. 19. The lack of sexual education of women and girls with disabilities, wrongly perceived as non-sexual beings, contributes to sexual violence committed against them, as they are unable to distinguish inappropriate or abusive behaviours. 17 The intersection of gender-based and disability-based discrimination also contributes to stereotypical views of women and girls with disabilities as lacking intelligence and being compliant and timid. It also leads to a lack of credibility when abuse is reported, and therefore minimal risk of perpetrators being discovered and punished. 20. Women have higher rates of morbidity late in life when compared with men of the same age. As they tend to live longer, they are statistically more likely to acquire an agerelated disability. Research has also found that they are twice as likely as men to live in residential settings and more likely to experience restrictions in daily functioning. 18 Studies in Sweden indicate that disability is a factor that increases the risk of assault for elderly women, but not for elderly men. 19 Older women with disabilities may furthermore be particularly dependent on their abuser for daily care. All these factors heighten their vulnerability to violence.20 In her thematic report submitted to the Human Rights Council at its seventeenth session, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences made reference to general recommendation No. 27 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in which it recognized that age and sex made older women vulnerable to violence, and that age, sex and disability made older women with disabilities particularly vulnerable. 21 21. Women and girls with disabilities experience violence in many ways: in their homes or in institutions, at the hands of members of their immediate family, caregivers or strangers, in the community, in schools and in other public and private institutions. According to a report by the European Parliament, almost 80 per cent of women with disabilities are victims of violence, and they are four times more likely than other women to suffer sexual violence. According to the report, 80 per cent of those who living in institutions are exposed to violence from the people around them, whether health and service personnel or caregivers.22 Research has also found that women and girls with intellectual disabilities are at a particularly high risk of violence, including sexual violence.23 22. Women and girls with disabilities are more exposed to the forms of violence experienced by women without disabilities. Owing to some of the above-mentioned factors, acts of violence against women and girls with disabilities also include other forms of physical and psychological violence and neglect, including the withholding of medication 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Some countries have targeted programmes and initiatives to provide women and girls with disabilities with sexual education (see for example the submission of Luxembourg). Jennifer Nixon, “Domestic violence and women with disabilities: locating the issue on the periphery of social movements”, Disability & Society, vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 77-89. English summary of Brå report No 2007:26 “Violence against people with disabilities”, 2008. See “Older women and domestic violence, an overview’, Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (www.cnpea.ca/). A/HRC/17/26, para.15. European Parliament, Report on the situation of minority women in the European Union (2003/2109(INI)), pp. 13. See, for example, Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability, “Learning Disabilities and GenderBased Violence: Literature Review Summary”, February 2011 (contribution by the Government of Canada). 7