Activists have called for strict and joint measures to fight sexual violence against women with disabilities considering that 26 per cent of the recent surveyed women responded that they face the issue.

They were speaking on Friday during the national roundtable on gender based violence and disability” organised by Rwanda Organization of Women with Disabilities in collaboration with the National Council of Women and other partners.

The meeting shared the findings from the survey conducted in 2016 under the project dubbed ‘Voicing out: Building the capacities of women with disabilities in Rwanda’ working with 807 women with disabilities in 31 groups in four districts of Muhanga, Musanze, Rwamagana andNyabihu.

Godance Niyibizi, the executive director of the organization said that 48 per cent of the surveyed women reported to have faced some kind of violence and that "26 per cent of them faced sexual violence”.

The survey indicated that 38 per cent of them lack access or rights to property while 70 per cent never report about the violence they face.

"We have to raise awareness on girls and women with disabilities’ specific issues among key stakeholders to facilitate their full inclusion in national gender and GBV response through sustainable partnerships,” she said.

Donathile Kanimba the president of Rwanda Union of the Blind added that another project dubbed ‘engaging women with visual impairment into services’ explored into why women with disabilities lack access to some services.

"The research indicated that they lack services because 80 per cent of them do not know the laws protecting them while those who know the international convention on disabilities’ rights are less than 10 per cent,” she said.

Marie Louise Rwigema, the coordinator of MAJ ( Maison d’access a la justice) at the Ministry of Justice said disabled people are psychologically affected due to violence and stigma against them and therefore fail to seek justice once violated.

"Most of them do not know the laws supporting them. Currently as MAJ we are going down at grassroots level to raise awareness about their rights. We even support those in 1st and 2nd Ubudehe categories so that they access to legal support. Even third category can be connected to advocates,” she said.

Lack of sign language interpreters as challenge

She said "the current challenges met in following up those violence issues include lack of sign language interpreters since there are no staff in public institutions to do so. This needs joints efforts to tackle the issue”.

The Director-General of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), OswardTuyizere said that so far 168 criminal investigators and advocates have been trained how to treat victims of violence who have disabilities across the country.

He said a sign language dictionary is also being prepared to ease the interpretation.

"We have called for a consultant and so far one is interested. We hope that by middle next year it might be available,” he said.

There are about 446,436 people with disabilities in Rwanda according to recent figures; he said adding that more advocacies is needed to build sustainable and resilient society.

That is why we are advocating for them so that even building code considers parts for easing those people’s movement and we have also petitioned government to attract investors in introduced public transport cars that can facilitate people with disabilities, he said.

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