A/HRC/27/65 poverty, marginalization and discrimination), within State criminal justice systems and within indigenous juridical systems. 56. Indigenous persons with disabilities are disproportionately at risk of experiencing all forms of violence and neglect, compounded by discrimination based on race, gender, identity and sexual orientation. These forms of violence include physical, emotional and sexual violence. Violence against indigenous persons with disabilities often originates within their own families.40 Fearing abandonment and often unable to seek alternative care or communicate with outside sources, indigenous persons with disabilities can be forced to remain in abusive situations,41 or, when successful in obtaining care, are often violently abused by the caregivers who are meant to protect them. 57. Lack of culturally appropriate and accessible systems of assessment reduces access to justice by indigenous persons with disabilities. Also, due in large part to poverty, isolation and marginalization, indigenous persons with disabilities are unable to receive proper assessment, care or treatment. In many cases, the first contact indigenous persons with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, have with disability services is after they have come into contact with the criminal justice system.42 58. Indigenous persons with disabilities also face high rates of incarceration and suffer further barriers while incarcerated, including arbitrary or indefinite detention in long-stay institutions, particularly where mental health issues or intellectual disabilities are present (E/C.19/2013/6, p. 9). Indigenous persons with disabilities face barriers within the justice system which prevent them from accessing support and services. For example, in Australia, indigenous persons with intellectual disabilities are often detained and assessed as unfit for trial. When this occurs, their detentions often become indefinite. The reports received by the Expert Mechanism suggest that indigenous persons are often incarcerated in inappropriate conditions, such as in maximum security prisons in Australia, which have held indigenous persons with intellectual disabilities and have been reported to subject them to excessive mechanical and chemical restraint (ibid.). 59. The limited availability of information in accessible formats creates a substantial barrier for indigenous persons with disabilities. Accessing information on rights and other legal and educational material is often difficult without the necessary assistive technology and materials in alternative formats, including within State, indigenous and United Nations institutions. In rural or remote areas, such access is often non-existent. 60. Some indigenous languages do not have concepts or words for disability. Stories of indigenous persons with disabilities are often covered up and hidden by indigenous communities.43 These realities are a direct result of stigmatization of persons with disabilities, often based on the imposition of Western models of development, where communities have failed to recognize and accept indigenous persons with disabilities. Lack of support for families of children with disabilities too often leads to separation of children from their families into the child welfare system. This is more likely where historical 40 41 42 43 14 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Pacific Sub-Regional Office, A Deeper Silence: the Unheard Experiences of Women with Disabilities – Sexual and Reproductive Health and Violence against Women in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tonga (Suva, Fiji, 2013), p. 41. Expert Seminar: Ipul Powaseu. Submission: Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign. See also Mindy Sotiri et al., “No end in sight: the imprisonment, and indefinite detention of indigenous Australians with a cognitive impairment”, Aboriginal Justice Campaign, Sydney, September 2012. Available from www.pwd.org.au/documents/project/2012ADJC-NoEndInSight.docx. Expert Seminar: Ipul Powaseu.