Court authorised sterilisation and human rights: inequality, discrimination and violence against women and girls with disability

Since at least the early 1990s, disability rights advocates have argued for the prohibition of sterilisation of women and girls with disability without their consent ('non-consensual sterilisation') except in that small proportion of instances where there is a serious threat to life. In part, this argument has been framed in terms of human rights: the act of non-consensual sterilisation (except where there is a serious threat to life) is fundamentally an act of discrimination and violence which violates multiple human rights including the rights to equality and non-discrimination, freedom from torture and personal integrity. In recent years these arguments have been increasingly supported by international human rights bodies which have framed non-consensual sterilisation of women and girls with disability as a violation of human rights and urged states parties, including Australia, to prohibit the practice.