Ruby Mae Axelson, GRC’s Gender & Child Justice Lead, participated in a side event during the 19th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP19).
The discussion examined the systemic and conflict-related violence faced by persons with disabilities in Ukraine, including the heightened risks experienced by women and girls with disabilities, and explored how disability-inclusive standards can be embedded across war crimes investigations, reparations, and broader justice mechanisms.
During the event, Ruby Mae Axelson highlighted the importance of ensuring that persons with disabilities are meaningfully included in accountability processes so that their experiences of conflict-related harm are recognised, documented, and addressed.
Ruby also highlighted GRC’s ongoing work with Ukrainian authorities to strengthen disability-inclusive accountability in practice. This includes support provided by GRC and expert William Pons in developing protocols for survivor-centred engagement with victims and witnesses with disabilities.
“Ukraine’s experience already shows both the scale of the problem and the possibility of change. If disability continues to be treated as background context rather than central to conflict-related violence and deprivation, and legal remedies are divorced from ongoing systemic injustice, “survivor-centred” accountability will reproduce hierarchies of exclusion, in Ukraine and beyond,” noted Ruby.
GRC remains committed to supporting efforts that ensure accountability and justice processes are accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the experiences of persons with disabilities.