A/HRC/20/5 girls with disabilities, or hade available disaggregated data on instances of violence against them,13 in the great majority of cases such information is not available. Where incidents are documented, the data available often do not make a distinction between type of disability, seriousness and type of incident. 14. There is a number of factors that expose both men and women with disabilities to a greater risk of violence. One factor is the prejudice associated with disability. In many societies, persons with disabilities are still regarded as recipients of charity or objects of others’ decisions instead of holders of rights, which in turn favours the perception that they are incapable of adopting decisions autonomously. Communication barriers experienced by persons with sensory disabilities can lead to them being targeted in the belief that they will not be able to complain. 15. Another important factor is isolation and exclusion from society in residential institutions. Persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, and in particular those living in institutionalized settings, are the most vulnerable to violence. In Europe alone, 1.2 million children and adults with disabilities live in long-stay residential institutions.14 16. Exposure of persons with disabilities to a greater risk of violence is directly linked to factors that increase their dependence on others or disempower and disenfranchise them. Many of these factors also lead to impunity and the invisibility of the issue, and results in the violence lasting for extended periods; they include absence of mobility aids or assistive devices and the training needed to use them; laws that allow for deprivation of legal capacity, resulting in the appointment of a legal guardian to make and express legally binding decisions for the person with disabilities; lack of access to information and counselling services; fear of reporting the abuse for concern of losing needed care; and fear of institutionalization if the abusive home environment is reported. The inability of professionals, relatives and friends to recognize circumstances resulting from violence – as they are often considered to be inherent to the disability – is another factor that contributes to making the violence invisible. 17. Empirical evidence confirms that disability is experienced differently by women and men, and that this difference is largely shaped and determined by gender. 15 In its general recommendation No. 18, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women stressed that women with disabilities may be subject to double discrimination on account of gender and disability, and are considered a vulnerable group. Double discrimination pervades all aspect of their lives. When compared with men with disabilities, women with disabilities are more likely to experience poverty and isolation, and tend to have lower salaries and be less represented in the work force. As a result, they are also more likely to be victims of violence and/or less able to escape the cycle of violence. Even in countries with a relatively high standard of living, women with disabilities are more likely to be poor or to have a lower standard of living than men with disabilities. 16 13 14 15 16 6 Such as those from Bahrain, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Canada, Italy, Panama and Serbia. OHCHR Europe Regional Office, “Forgotten Europeans, forgotten rights: the human rights of persons placed in institutions”, 2010. “Women and Disability Don't Mix! Double Discrimination and Disabled Women's Rights”, Lina Abu Habib, Gender and Development, vol. 3, No. 2, June 1995, pp. 49-53. “Woman, training, work and gender! A partnership of equals”, International Labour Office, Geneva, 2000, Inter-American Research and Documentation Centre on Vocational Training (Cinterfor/ILO); Eurostat: Employment of people with disabilities (ad hoc module of the Labour Force Survey 2002), http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (28 October 2009).