CRPD/C/GC/3 physically access distribution points. Even when they do, they may not be able to communicate with staff. Likewise, if women with disabilities are subjected to violence, exploitation or abuse, information and communication helplines and hotlines may not be accessible. Refugee camps often lack child protection mechanisms for children with disabilities. In addition, accessible sanitation facilities to ensure hygienic menstrual management are often unavailable, which can in turn increase women with disabilities’ exposure to violence. Single women with disabilities face barriers to accessible evacuation as a result of an emergency or disaster situation, in particular if they are accompanied by their children at the time of evacuation. This disproportionately affects internally displaced women with disabilities who are without an adult family member, friends or caregivers. Displaced girls with disabilities face additional barriers in accessing formal and non-formal education, especially in crisis settings. Equal recognition before the law (art. 12) 51. Women with disabilities, more often than men with disabilities and more often than women without disabilities, are denied the right to legal capacity. Their rights to maintain control over their reproductive health, including on the basis of free and informed consent, 60 to found a family, to choose where and with whom to live, to physical and mental integrity, to own and inherit property, to control their own financial affairs and to have equal access to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit61 are often violated through patriarchal systems of substituted decision-making. Access to justice (art. 13) 52. Women with disabilities face barriers to accessing justice, including with regard to exploitation, violence and abuse, owing to harmful stereotypes, discrimination and lack of procedural and reasonable accommodations, which can lead to their credibility being doubted and their accusations being dismissed.62 Negative attitudes in the implementation of procedures may intimidate victims or discourage them from pursuing justice. Complicated or degrading reporting procedures, the referral of victims to social services rather than the provision of legal remedies, dismissive attitudes by the police or other law enforcement agencies are examples of such attitudes. This could lead to impunity and to the invisibility of the issue, which in turn could result in violence lasting for extended periods of time.63 Women with disabilities may also fear reporting violence, exploitation or abuse because they are concerned that they may lose the support required from caregivers.64 Liberty and security of person and freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (arts. 14 and 15) 53. Violations relating to deprivation of liberty disproportionately affect women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities and those in institutional settings. Those deprived of their liberty in places such as psychiatric institutions, on the basis of actual or perceived impairment, are subject to higher levels of violence, as well as to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 65 and are segregated and exposed to the risk of sexual 60 61 62 63 64 65 Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 1 (2014) on equal recognition before the law. World Survey on the Role of Women in Development 2014: Gender Equality and Sustainable Development (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.14.IV.6). See A/HRC/20/5 and Corr.1, para. 41, and A/67/227, para. 42. See A/HRC/20/5 and Corr.1, para. 19. Ibid., para. 16. Ibid., para. 39. 13