Intersectional responses to the threats of the anti-rights movement

Blog by Natasha Trotman

Committee member, Amnesty Disabled People's Human Rights Network

Confronting Eco-Ableism: Securing Disabled People’s Rights in a Warming World

As the climate crisis accelerates, a quieter crisis of exclusion also grows. Policies meant to green our economies often overlook disabled people’s needs, voices, and rights. This is eco-ableism: when environmental actions assume a narrow, normed body and mind, shaping policy, infrastructure, and participation around it. The outcome is predictable. Barriers increase, the burden of transition falls on those with the least power, and public support for climate action becomes more fragile. If we truly aim for a just transition, disability justice must be a central principle, not an afterthought.

Our Global Research and Action Network for a New Eco-Social Contract (GRAN-ESC) working group on Disabilities, Intersectionalities, and Eco-Social Contracts, co-led by Chris Hopkins of the Green Economy Coalition and myself, exists to help change the narrative. We combine lived experience, research, and practice to co-create an eco-social contract that prioritises human rights, inclusion, and the rights of nature. This involves explicitly recognising eco-ableism, listening to disabled and neurodivergent communities, and ensuring our collective responses to climate breakdown do not reproduce the harms of extractive, exclusionary systems.


Why now

We are operating in the midst of a global anti-rights backlash targeting disabled people, neurodivergent people, gender minorities, migrants, racialised communities, the LGBTQ+ communities and those living in poverty. Across regions, rollbacks often manifest as efforts to protect, uphold tradition, or improve efficiency. The effects on multiply marginalised individuals are significant: reduced services and support, increased surveillance, and the erosion of hard-won legal protections. Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality illustrates why solutions addressing only one issue fail; harms intensify when race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, migration status, religion, age, class, and citizenship intersect. We see this in health inequalities, climate risk exposure, and exclusion from policy-making processes.


Eco-ableism in practice

Eco-ableism occurs at both structural and everyday levels. It manifests as:


• Sustainable procurement omits essential access tools by considering them non-essential or high-emission, without offering accessible alternatives.

• Transport and public realm schemes that remove curbside access or quiet spaces, or neglect wayfinding and sensory access needs.

• Retrofit programmes that promote a one-size-fits-all approach without providing accessible information, support during disruptions, or aftercare for new technologies.

• Consultation processes conducted in inaccessible venues, formats, or times that exclude people with energy-limiting conditions or communication access needs.

The consequence of these barriers emerging for the most marginalised in society is that the fight against the climate change risks losing natural, and sorely needed, allies in the fight for a fairer and more sustainable future. With a ‘green backlash’ in full swing in many countries, climate advocates and policy-makers alike can little afford to lose the trust of an embattled, yet determined disabled community. In a warming world, a green transition that becomes a byword for exclusion risks all our futures.

Fortunately, these issues are preventable. When disabled leadership, considering those who are easily excluded and co-design are involved, outcomes improve for everyone. London’s ULEZ measures achieved through disabled advocacy, The London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Inclusive Environments Co-Production Panel, Bristol’s Climate and Disability Programme demonstrate how targeted adjustments and community involvement can boost participation, safety, and fairness while supporting climate goals and implementing Inclusive and accessible methods, approaches and tangible outputs. .
 

The case for intersectional new eco-social contracts

GRAN-ESC’s vision of a new eco-social contract promotes human rights, climate and environmental justice, gender justice, solidarity, peace, intergenerational justice, decent (humane) work, and the rights of nature. To realise this vision, disability justice and intersectionality must be integrated from the outset. The social model of disability reminds us that people are disabled by barriers, not by their impairments. Removing these barriers is both practical and ethical. Simultaneously, the theory of complex embodiment encourages considering multiple perspectives and the complexities surrounding health, well-being, and, in some instances, identity: some impairments involve limitations that accommodations cannot fully resolve. An inclusive transition recognises both truths by combining barrier removal, reasonable adjustments, resources for support, trauma-informed approaches, and flexible, person-centred participation.

Health equity is integral to climate justice. Arline Geronimus’ concept of weathering describes the biological toll of ongoing discrimination and material hardship. Climate shocks and austerity measures intensify this chronic stress, worsening health outcomes and deepening inequality. Policies that reduce everyday friction, acknowledge cumulative stressors, and distribute transition benefits more equitably are not optional but essential for upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and maintaining the legitimacy of climate action.

What Inclusion Looks Like

Across our working group and allied initiatives, we recognise practical patterns that work:

                • Inclusive leadership: Disabled people co-chair panels, co-produce plans, and own monitoring frameworks. Not consultation after the fact, but decision-making from the start.

                  • Accessible formats and spaces: BSL interpretation, plain language, Easy Read, large print, hybrid events, quiet spaces, flexible timing, and recognition of energy-limiting conditions.

                  • Inclusive transport and retrofit design: Single points of contact with lived experience, early access planning, clear information, staged works to reduce disruption, and funded adjustments. Training for advisors and installers to meet access needs in practice, not just on paper.

                  • Data justice: Intersectional data collection that includes disability, race, migration status, sexuality, gender diversity and socio-economics to surface hidden harms and target remedies.

                  • Resourced movements: Core, sustained funding for DPOs and cross-movement coalitions that link disability justice with climate, migrant, and gender justice.
 

These are not hypothetical. Bristol’s Sensing Climate guides, the Inclusive Transport Toolkit, and community-led food and nature projects demonstrate how co-design and narrative change unlock participation, dignity, and shared benefits. They also show how small design choices build trust and reduce attrition in programmes that are otherwise perceived as risky or extractive by disabled people and carers.

From Values to Action


We invite allies across policy, philanthropy, design, and activism to:

• Commit to accessible processes, budgets, and timelines that normalise access and inclusion rather than treating them as exceptions.

• Align with enforceable rights frameworks, especially the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and harmonise laws and programmes to address intersectional exclusion.

• Build transdisciplinary coalitions connecting health, housing, transport, energy, nature, and care, recognising that people do not live in silos.

• Share power and resources. Co-governance with DPOs and grassroots networks, alongside transparent accountability mechanisms, will foster better choices and reduce backlash risks.
 

Join the discussion

Amnesty UK’s Disabled People’s Human Rights Network, in collaboration with UNRISD’s GRAN-ESC Disabilities and Intersectionalities group, is hosting a hybrid event: Intersectional responses to the threats of the anti-rights movement. Our panel, Rising Strong Together: Championing Disability Rights and Justice on an Overheating Planet, brings together expertise from public health, policy, design, activism, and lived experience. Confirmed speakers include Dr Cathy Mungall-Baldwin, Murrin Huarachi-McColl, Michael Martinez-Pastoriza, and Suzanne Iwai. Co-chaired by Chris Hopkins and myself, Natasha Trotman, the session will ground new eco-social contracts in real-life experiences and provide space for questions and contributions. The keynote will be delivered by Rebecca Taylor Edwards from Disability Rights UK; she will be discussing building collective power for intersectional community leadership across the disability, human rights, health, and social justice movements. The afternoon workshop, led by members of Amnesty UK's Disabled Peoples' Human Rights Network (DPHRN) and Rick Burgess, will develop practical solutions to the anti-rights surge through myth-busting and collaborative strategies.

And a gentle reminder that the theme for this year's International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) 2025 is disability leadership, as the rollbacks impact some of the most underserved in our societies, the need for alternative styles of leadership is vital. To facilitate this in a meaningful way, support, space, and trust are core ingredients to amplify the voices and leadership of disabled people for inclusive and sustainable futures.

The importance of neurodivergent and disabled people taking on leading roles to imagine, craft and implement more equitable and sustainable worlds is needed now, more than ever, not only in 2025 but consistently as we move forward. This is a call for solidarity and dedicated effort. The climate movement cannot succeed if it fosters exclusion. Disability advocacy cannot advance if climate shocks deepen inequalities. A new eco-social contract calls us to build together: accessible by design, accountable in practice, and rooted in human rights. When we center disabled people's knowledge and leadership, we do not limit our goals; we extend them.

Sources:

Core frameworks and concepts

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1 (1989): 139–67. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “On Intersectionality: More Than Two Decades Later.” Columbia Law School, 2017. https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectio….

Columbia Law School. “Kimberlé W. Crenshaw.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-w-crenshaw.

Inclusion London. “The Social Model of Disability and the Cultural Model of Deafness.” Accessed September 30, 2025. https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/about-us/disability-in-london/social….

Siebers, Tobin. “Complex Embodiment: Modern Disability Theory.” In Disability Theory, 25–55. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.309928.  Archived excerpts: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/90197/Disabilit…]

Geronimus, Arline T. Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2023.

Population Studies Center, University of Michigan. “‘Weathering,’ the Life’s Work of Arline Geronimus.” March 23, 2023. https://psc.isr.umich.edu/news/a-monumental-new-book-weathering-arline-….

Jarral, Farrah. “Weathering by Arline Geronimus Review: How Discrimination Makes You Sick.” The Guardian, March 17, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/17/weathering-by-arline-gero….

Eco-social contracts and GRAN-ESC

UNRISD. “Global Research and Action Network for a New Eco-social Contract.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.ecosocialcontract.net/.

UNRISD. “Working Groups: Disabilities, Intersectionalities and Eco-social Contracts.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.ecosocialcontract.net/working-groups.

Human rights and CRPD

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://social.desa.un.org/issues/disability/crpd/convention-on-the-rig….

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The Impact of Climate Change on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.ohchr.org/en/climate-change/impact-climate-change-rights-pe….

Climate, air quality, just transition context

Met Office. “Effects of Climate Change.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate-change/effects-of-climate-….

World Health Organization. “New WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines Aim to Save Millions of Lives From Air Pollution.” September 22, 2021. https://www.who.int/news/item/22-09-2021-new-who-global-air-quality-gui….

Podcast

UNRISD Podcasts. “Human Rights for All: Putting People With Disabilities at the Heart of Eco-social Contracts, with Natasha Trotman and Monica Pinilla.” Spotify, accessed October 2, 2025. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ErHZAm0u7xxebZR0Q8rfo.

Mayor of London ULEZ disability mitigations:

University of Kent, Kent Business School. “Mayor of London Approves Dr Kush Kanodia’s Campaign for Concessions.” December 2022. https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/kbs-news-events/2022/12/london-mayor-approves-….

University of Kent Business School News. “Alum Dr Kush Kanodia Success in Campaigning for Mitigations for Disabled People in ULEZ Policy.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.kent.ac.uk/kent-business-school/news/21451/alum-dr-kush-kan….

Patricia Hill Collins. “Intersectionality and Democratic Possibilities.” Lecture video, recommended time code 34:00–38:00. Accessed September 30, 2025. https://youtu.be/0qU10tQ_rHo.

Bristol Climate and Disability Programme and allied outputs

Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership. “Climate and Disability Programme: Climate and Disability Showcase, Sensing Climate, and Inclusive Transport Toolkit.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://bristolclimatenature.org/projects/community-climate-action/clim….

Sensing Climate. “Disability-inclusive Climate Action: Guides and Resources.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://sensing-climate.com/.

Walk Wheel Cycle Trust. “Inclusive Transport Toolkit.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.walkwheelcycletrust.org.uk/. [Toolkit is signposted via Bristol Climate and Nature Partnership page above]

Centre for Sustainable Energy. “Energy and Disability: Improving Home Retrofit for Disabled People and Carers.” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://www.cse.org.uk/.

Intersectional backlash, regional , national and international sources: 



Human Rights Watch. “I Became Scared, This Was Their Goal: Efforts to Ban Gender and Sexuality Education in Brazil.” May 12, 2022. https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/05/12/i-became-scared-was-their-goal/ef….

U.S. House of Representatives, House Democracy Partnership. “Women in China: Regressive Gender Governance in Authoritarian States.” April 12, 2024. https://hdp.house.gov/recent-news-and-activities/recent-activity/women-….

BBC News. Koh, Ewe. “Thailand: Students Now Free to Choose Their Hairstyles, Court Rules.” March 7, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj67yj1kj36o..

Equality Now. “Canada Takes a Major Step in Advancing Women’s Rights.” Accessed May 27, 2025. https://equalitynow.org/press_release/canada-takes-a-major-step-in-adva….

Human Rights Watch. “Canada’s Dangerous Retreat on Migrant Rights.” January 27, 2025. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/01/27/canadas-dangerous-retreat-migrant-r….

Al Jazeera. “France: The Far Right’s ‘Feminist’ Rhetoric Masks Racism.” March 8, 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/8/france-the-far-rights-feminist-….

Human Rights Watch. “France: Discriminatory Hijab Ban Proposed for Athletes.” January 25, 2022. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/25/france-discriminatory-hijab-ban-pro….

Human Rights Watch. “Hungary: Bill Threatens to Eviscerate Democracy.” May 29, 2025. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/21/hungary-bill-threatens-eviscerate-d….

Associated Press. Spike, Justin. “Hungary Passes Constitutional Amendment to Ban LGBTQ+ Public Events.” April 15, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/hungary-lgbtq-pride-ban-constitution-amendme….

The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Inclusive Environments Co-production Panel. September 30, 2025
https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/councillors-and-democracy/co-production-doing-t…