“I welcome the Family Violence Death Review Committee’s latest report that highlights the lack of accessible support for disabled people and their whānau as well as the risk of financial abuse when disabled people do not have control of their finances,” says Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero.

“I am pleased to see that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is central in the work. I acknowledge the examples of the successful whole of whānau approach being taken by Māori organisations.”

Tesoriero says disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori often cannot escape violence and abuse for a range of reasons including poverty and a severe lack of support and resources.

Violence and abuse against disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori take many forms, and they face many barriers to reporting abuse and stopping violence when it happens such as:

• caregivers/support people being the abusers
• not being valued or believed
• negative attitudes towards disabled people.

“There is a desperate need for mainstream support services to be accessible and for services to help support disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori who have specific needs.”

In November 2021, the Human Rights Commission published two reports providing for the first time:

• evidence of the violence and abuse experienced by disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori
• recommendations to prevent and respond to violence and abuse based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights.

“It is vital that we learn from and implement the lessons built over the years of the FVDRC work. Many of these are also reflected in the conclusions/recommendations in the reports we released in December 2021, such as recognising Mātauranga Māori, addressing ableism, ensuring workforce development to understand disabled people, and addressing determinants of health,” Tesoriero says.

Additional statistics

Disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori experience alarming rates of violence and abuse. According to the 2019 New Zealand Family Violence Study disabled people are experiencing more non-partner physical and sexual violence than non-disabled people:

• for women, 15.4% of those with impairments experienced lifetime non-partner physical violence, and 11.1% experienced lifetime non-partner sexual violence
• for disabled men, 56.2% experienced lifetime non-partner physical violence, and 5.6% experienced lifetime non-partner sexual violence
• people with psychosocial impairments reported the highest prevalence rates of non-partner physical and sexual violence
• of the disabled people who reported non-partner sexual violence, 43.5% of women and 60% of men never sought help.

Links

FVRC report

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2206/S00036/seventh-family-violence-deaths-report-highlights-agencies-duty-of-care.htm

HRC reports

https://www.hrc.co.nz/news/violence-and-abuse-against-disabled-people-epidemic-proportions-says-commissioner/

Family Violence study

https://nzfvc.org.nz/family-violence-statistics/population-based-research-studies#nzfvs2019

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