Join us for 2025's first research presentation hosted by the Disability Studies Program and the D Center!
Links for this event:
- Recording of the talk (zoom with captions)
- Slide deck for this presentation (link to Google slides)
Event:
When: Friday, February 7, 1-2pm
Title: Unseen and Unsafe: Barriers to Asylum for Refugees with Disabilities
Where (hybrid):
HUB 327 (the D Center)
Presenters:
Students involved in the project: Taylor Arredondo, Stuart Asplund, Alice Bruil, Koschei Budkar, Alexandra Crooks, Zak Osborn, Vanessa Pankaj, and Carlos Yanez Navarro. Research assistant: Kaden Kaeo. Project Advisors: Megan McCloskey, Johanna Mora, Mostofa Md. Golam Hasan, and Rhoda Adeke. This project is supported by a research grant from the DS Program's Harlan Hahn Endowment Fund.
Accessibility information and RSVP:
CART captioning and ASL interpretation will be provided. ASL interpreters will be on Zoom. The D Center is mobility aid accessible. If you anticipate other access needs for this hybrid event, please contact Joanne (jwoiak at uw dot edu).
- Streamtext link to view the captions in a browser on your device: https://www.streamtext.net/
player?event=UW-DSP - Slide deck for this presentation (link to Google slides)
The D Center is a fairly small space, so your RSVP is requested for planning purposes. Contact Joanne if you will attend in person!
Abstract:
Over the past few years, the numbers of forcibly displaced people has reached record highs as protracted conflicts and environmental and economic crises have forced people out of their homes. The year 2023 witnessed the largest single-year increase in forced displacement in the history of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with over five million newly displaced (UNHCR, n.d.). This trend is expected to continue as climate change-related events such as natural disasters, drought and flooding, and conflict driven by natural resource depletion presents looming threats to the stability of nation-states worldwide (UNHCR, 2023a). Additional economic pressures fueling political unrest and armed conflict are likely to add to the growing population of refugees and those in refugee-like situations.
Although the exact number is unknown, the IOM has estimated there were nearly 12.5 million persons with disabilities among the displaced at the end of 2020 (Migration Data Portal, 2023). It is likely that this undercounts the number of disabled especially among those fleeing armed conflicts. Refugees with disabilities are among the most vulnerable in displaced and crisis-affected communities, often struggling to meet the most basic needs of food, water, shelter, and freedom from violence (UN General Assembly, 2016). Despite this, they remain largely invisible to policy-makers and humanitarian actors alike, with potentially devastating consequences.
The global community has long committed to protect the rights of the most vulnerable especially in times of war. Embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the 1951 Refugee Convention, and the Sustainable Development Agenda are promises to protect the human rights of civilians and vulnerable populations, yet the international community has failed to uphold these rights for refugees with disabilities. Instead, persons with disabilities face nearly insurmountable challenges finding safety due to too few resources, inaccessible services, and little to no protection from violence.
This report adds to existing literature on the application of the CRPD to refugees with disabilities and builds upon it to assess how effectively individual states implement the CRPD in their asylum procedures. It reviews the normative frameworks respecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Bangladesh, Colombia, Germany, Uganda, and the United States, all of whom host among the largest populations of refugees and those in refugee-like situations in the world. The study seeks to explore how the law works as both a tool for relief and a barrier to safety for millions of refugees with disabilities. It also considers where normative frameworks are insufficient to meet the needs of refugees with disabilities or to ensure equality in accessibility, accommodations, and services.
Although the circumstances in the countries under study are diverse and each face challenges particular to their political, economic, and social contexts, the study finds that none are effectively meeting the needs of refugees with disabilities or fulfilling the promise of international human rights law to the most vulnerable. In short, to meet the present moment and truly commit to protecting the human rights of all, governments and humanitarian actors must do more.