The present report provides the assessment of the needs and legal status of women and girls with disabilities, taking into account the national and international obligations and standards of the Government of Georgia. The assessment of the needs of women with disabilities and the protection of their rights is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and its general comments. As well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), its general comments and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

According to the research, the protection of the rights of women and girls with disabilities, at the policy level, is not a priority. Some positive changes, which are reflected in the creation of appropriate regulations or programs to improve the standards of protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, can not be considered as an effective way to protect the rights of women and girls with disabilities. These approaches and programs fail to see the needs of women and girls with disabilities, which for the most part may differ from the needs of men with disabilities. The state does not have a systemic vision of how to improve the protection of the rights of women and girls with disabilities in all areas of life. In this regard, the lack of production of segregated statistics is particularly problematic, without which, in fact, it is impossible to see the full picture of the scale of the problem we are dealing with in this or that area of life of women and girls with disabilities. The study also found that in certain areas, such as protection of the right to health and protection from violence, the standard of protection deteriorated during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This publication was prepared by the Public Defender's Office of Georgia with the support of UN Women in the framework of the project “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia generously funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.