As the DIS-CONNECTED project comes to a close, we are releasing our reports and tools developed throughout the initiative. The project explored violence against women and children with disabilities, underscoring their increased vulnerability to gender-based violence.

We are now publishing our final report, which synthesises findings across the five project countries. The report highlights the experiences of women and children with disabilities with monitoring, reporting and support systems. The final report offers an analysis of the legal framework of each country regarding gender-based violence, identifies support and community-based accessible services for victims with disabilities, and makes recommendations to ensure women and children with disabilities victims of violence can report, access to justice and be provided the support they need.

Some of our key findings:

• Victims with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities face numerous barriers to accessing the justice system.
• They struggle to recognise and report gender-based violence, have a general lack of trust in authorities, and face barriers such as communication difficulties, lack of accessible information on their legal procedures and rights, inadequate training of professionals, legal capacity restrictions, and an absence of procedures to assess and provide procedural accommodations to victims with disabilities.
• Violence is common in institutional settings, although they are often normalised, concealed and unreported, due to inadequate staff training, staff shortages, lack of appropriate complaint procedures and overcrowding.
• There is limited external oversight of these institutions, and the over isolation and control faced by people with disabilities in closed settings and the lack of external complaint and monitoring mechanisms makes it difficult for violence to be identified.
• There are no specific methods in place for monitoring social and health services in order to identify gender-based violence against persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, which is being perpetrated in those settings.
• Support services for victims of gender-based violence are inaccessible for victims with disabilities and there are limited or no specialised or adapted community-based services. This often leads to institutionalisation as the only option for women and children with disabilities who are victims of violence, which is considered a protective

The international synthesis report presents a comparison and analysis of the results across the five countries, with EU legislation, and develops a series of recommendations for services, police and legal professionals, and for our governments and European Union on next steps to improve support and the rights for women and children with disabilities victims of violence.

This report is essential reading for human rights advocates, policymakers, legal professionals, support organisations, and anyone committed to ensuring justice for all and advancing towards a world free from gender-based violence.

Download the full report now and be part of the change.