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Advocacy, Human Rights and the Social Model of Disability: A

Disabled Peoples Organisation perspective on

supporting PLWHA

Matthew BowdenCo-Chief Executive Officer

People with Disability Australia

Acknowledgement of Country

We gather in Melbourne, the traditional meeting place of the Wurundjeri, Boonerwrung, Taungurong, Djajawurrung and the Wathaurung people, the original and enduring custodians of the lands that make up the Kulin Nation

People with Disability Australia (PWDA) pay our respects to the traditional owners and elders past, present and future of these nations and we acknowledge that these always have been and always will be their lands 2

Introduction PWDA regards HIV/AIDS as a chronic health impairment that

can lead to people experiencing disability – we address this through individual and systemic advocacy – our members and advocacy clients include people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)

PWDA works with people with disability who are in the most marginalised and segregated settings including people incarcerated in prisons, institutions, disability justice centres, juvenile detention centres and immigration detention

PWDA regards people with disability as being at specific risk of HIV infection and requiring adjustments in the way that HIV information, treatments and supports are provided

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Defining disability

The United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) describes ‘persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others’ (Article 1)

This inclusive definition of impairment/disability extends to people living with HIV/AIDS

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Medical model vs social model of disability The social model contrasts with the medical model of disability. HIV is still very much situated within the medical model and this is problematic for various reasons:In the medical model of disability, ‘disability’ is a health condition dealt with by medical professionals. People with disability are thought to be different to ‘what is normal’ or abnormal‘Disability’ is seen to be a problem of the individual. From the medical model, a person with disability is in need of being fixed or cured From this point of view, disability is a tragedy of the individual and people with disability are to be pitied

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Social model of disability

The social model sees ‘disability’ as the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and an environment filled with physical, attitudinal, communication and social barriers

It therefore carries the implication that the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment must change to enable people living with impairments to participate in society on an equal basis with others

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Social model of disability

A social model perspective does not deny the reality of impairment nor its impact on the individual.  However, it does challenge the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment to accommodate impairment as an expected incident of human diversity

The social model seeks to change society in order to accommodate people living with impairment; it does not seek to change persons with impairment to accommodate society.  It supports the view that people with disability have a right to be fully participating citizens on an equal basis with others

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Social model of disability

The social model of disability is now the internationally recognised way to view and address ‘disability’. The CRPD marks the official paradigm shift in attitudes towards people with disability and approaches to disability concerns

People with disability are not "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection but "subjects" with rights, capable of claiming those rights, able to make decisions for their own lives based on their free and informed consent and be active members of society

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Social model of disability

In this context:Impairment (HIV) is a medical condition that leads to disability; whileDisability is the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and barriers in the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment. I.e. it is not the inability to walk that keeps a person from entering a building by themselves but the stairs that are inaccessible that keeps a wheelchair-user from entering that building. It isn’t the person’s positive HIV status that stops them from migrating to Australia it is Australia’s migration policy that prevents this

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PWDA’s advocacy

A social model approach to disability enables PWDA to understand the problem as outside of the person with disability and direct our advocacy towards those barriers disabling the person or group

We appreciate that not all PLWHA are continually disabled or identify with the disabled community but this approach enables us to clearly address the impediments to the full exercise of PLWHA’s human rights

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Applying a rights framework

The disability rights movement has fought long and hard for its wins (antidiscrimination frameworks, service user protections, charters of rights etc) and these can be used to protect the rights of PLWHA

Internationally CRPD is a very useful framework for understanding rights

CRPD is inclusive of PLWHA and is broadly accepted – 158 countries are signatories, 147 countries have ratified and 92 have signed and 82 ratified the Optional Protocol

Advocacy can be employed at the individual, community, national, regional and international levels

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PWDA’s advocacy as a DPO

Systemic advocacy – Civil Society report to CRPD Committee includes advocacy around the discrimination PLWHA face when trying to migrate to Australia (mandatory HIV testing all prospective migrants and applicants for refugee and humanitarian visas – HIV positive applicants largest group who fail health requirement)

Concluding observations from the CRPD Committee express concern and recommend that Australia bring its domestic legislation fully in line with CRPD Article 18 (Liberty of movement and nationality) and withdraw its interpretative declaration on Article 18 (its justification of the discrimination) – levers for our advocacy

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PWDA’s advocacy as a DPO

Training: Project to train HACC workers on HIV awareness and antidiscrimination in service delivery to PLWHA HIV prevention training projects with people with disability including those with intellectual and psychosocial impairments, people in institutions and those experiencing homelessness

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PWDA’s advocacy as a DPO

Individual advocacy:Support to people experiencing human rights violations including the intersectionality of HIV and other impairments, HIV and gender and HIV and Aboriginality or multiple intersectionalities Advocacy responding to HIV related hate crimes, violence, discrimination, stigma, poverty, segregation, social controls/behaviour management, incarceration, denial of housing and disability related supports

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Conclusion

There will be many benefits with a paradigm shift from a medical model to a social model approach to HIV

The disabling responses to HIV can be addressed through implementing service user, disability and human rights frameworks, legislation and instruments

Uniting with cross-disability disabled peoples organisations has many advantages – together we are stronger!

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Thank youwww.pwd.org.au

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