Call for members for the Disability Justice x SRHR CoP

Calling all passionate advocates on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and/or disability justice! Liliane Fonds is looking for new members to join the Community of Practice (CoP) on Disability Justice and SRHR.

Background

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people globally have a disability. The world wasn’t built with people with disabilities in mind, which means the default setting of our world is “ableist.” Without most of us realizing, a system of discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that able-bodied people are superior is created. As a result, people with disabilities are often left furthest behind.

One way in which ablism is perpetuated is through misinformation and incorrect assumptions made about people with disabilities. This includes the mistaken belief that a person with disabilities are not sexual people, do not engage in sexual activity, or that they cannot or should not marry or have children. Like many assumptions about people with disabilities, this is based on a mix of ignorance and paternalism. Very often people with disabilities are completely excluded from sexual and reproductive health services, treated poorly when they try to engage with these services, or find that the services are inaccessible for them. Even sexual education is generally lacking information that is inclusive for people with disabilities. As a result, people with disabilities often lack accurate information about their bodies and sexual rights.

The Disability Justice and SRHR Community of Practice tries to change this situation by creating a space for people in the disability and SRHR movements to come together and learn about the intersection of disability justice and SRHR. It is a community for sharing knowledge, where you can come to learn, share resources, ask questions and discuss best practices on disability justice and SRHR. It is also a great place to connect with others who are interested in this topic.

Activities

As a community of practice, the activities are co-led by its members. Some of the activities include:

• Organizing of learning moments where members present research and best practices of working on the intersection of disability justice and SRHR
• Organizing of brainstorms around counter challenges when working on the intersection of disability justice and SRHR, e.g. experiences of SGBV, knowledge gaps and others
• Organizing of (online) networking activities to strengthen the network of CoP members
• Organizing external learning sessions where members can present their knowledge
• Sharing and co-creation of knowledge products around the intersection of disability justice and SRHR

We hold meetings every month on Zoom and members are provided with a Zoom link ahead of time. We also provide reasonable accommodation for our members, f.e. sign language interpretation.
The activities that have been held so far are the following:

• In June 2024 the CoP was established and a first live “getting to know each other” activity was held
• Members of the CoP contributed to 2 think pieces for the Share-Net blog
• As part of the Wo=men Beijing+30 campaign an external online teach-in was organized by the members with speakers from the Make Way program, DCDD and Liliane Fonds.

Membership

The CoP is open to everyone, whether you are an expert or just starting out. Some stakeholders could include:

• Strategic partner organizations of Liliane Fonds
• Young people from the different projects of Liliane Fonds
• INGOs working on disability inclusion
• (I)NGOs working on SRHR
• Knowledge institutions such as universities or think tanks
• PhD students of breaking down barriers

Currently the CoP is made up of 6 members representing the following organizations: Liliane Fonds, Share-Net, SAFE, KIT and University of Amsterdam.

We expect that the CoP will take about 2 hours of investment per month. This can increase depending on the activities members want to engage in. For a well-working CoP, we expect our members to actively contribute to the monthly meeting of the CoP, this can be either as a learning or as an expert or speaker. Organizations or individuals can apply to be a lead of the CoP together with Liliane Fonds during the first meetings.

In our current world with fascism on the rise in Europe and the US, climate induced disasters, and funding being removed, we risk pushing people with disabilities further behind. We need to build alliances and learn from one another. It is therefore tremendously important for professionals in the disability justice movement and SRHR to learn and work together.

We hope to welcome you to our new members meeting in July!