A/HRC/20/5 requires States to put in place legislation and policies and to ensure that instances of exploitation, violence and abuse against persons with disabilities, including women and girls, are identified, investigated and prosecuted. In article 28 (b), it calls on States to ensure access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection and poverty reduction programmes. 9. Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States parties to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse. The Committee on the Rights of the Child recognized that children with disabilities may be subject to particular forms of physical violence, such as forced sterilization (particularly girls); and violence in the guise of treatment (for example, electroconvulsive treatment and electric shocks used as “aversion treatment” to control children’s behaviour)”. 10 Article 37 of the Convention requires States parties to ensure that no child is subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This provision is closely related to article 39 of the Convention, which states that a child victim of, inter alia, torture or any form of cruel or inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment is accorded the right to the promotion of his or her physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration. 10. In its article 23, the Convention on the Rights of the Child addresses the rights of children with disabilities, stating that a mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active participation in the community. In its general comment No. 9 on the rights of children with disabilities, the Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that girls with disabilities were even more vulnerable to discrimination, and requested States parties to, when necessary, take extra measures to ensure that girls with disabilities were well protected, had access to all services and were fully included in society. 11 11. The above provisions must be read in conjunction with the principles enshrined in declarations referring to persons with disabilities and be construed to encompass a number of specific legal obligations for Member States. Such obligations include taking legislative, administrative and judicial or other measures to prohibit and prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities, to investigate and punish acts of violence, and to provide redress and remedies for victims. Specific elements of applicable international human rights law are referenced in the sections below. III. Violence against women and girls with disabilities 12. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, worldwide, more than a billion people live with some form of disability, the majority of which live in developing countries, and that this figure is increasing through population growth, medical advances and the ageing process.12 It also notes that there are significant differences in the prevalence of disability between men and women in both developing and more developed countries; the male disability prevalence rate is 12 per cent, while the and female prevalence rate is 19.2 per cent. 13. Submissions from Member States for the present study showed that, although a number of countries had undertaken studies and research on violence against women and 10 11 12 General comment No. 13 (CRC/C/GC/13), paras. 21-22. CRC/C/GC/9, para. 10. World report on disability, WHO and the World Bank, 2011. 5