Central Coast-based advocate Monique Blakemore has addressed the United Nations Conference of States Parties in New York to demand justice for autistic women and girls.
“These are not just numbers; these are lives — silenced, dismissed, and denied justice,” she told the conference.
A policy advisor and international disability rights advocate, Blakemore spoke at a high-level side event titled Numbers Don’t Lie: Disability, Autism, Sexual Abuse and Bodily Integrity, hosted by the governments of Spain and Malta.
She presented confronting statistics highlighting the crisis of sexual violence experienced by autistic women globally.
She said 88.4% of autistic women have experienced sexual violence and 75% of those survivors report multiple assaults.
She said 68.7% reported having been raped, 50% experienced their first assault as minors and 60% consented to unwanted sexual contact out of fear, confusion, or to avoid conflict.
“These figures are staggering,” she said.
“But we must also ask: Why are so few of these crimes ever reported, let alone prosecuted?”
Blakemore delved deeper into the silence surrounding these crimes, revealing the additional barriers autistic women faced when seeking justice.
“I look at the research on reporting to try and make sense of what still does not,” she said.
“Why are survivors silenced?
“Why does the system continue to disbelieve us?”
She said only one in three sexual assault victims reported their abuse with only 25% of those reports leading to formal complaints or charges.
“For autistic women, the barriers to justice are uniquely high,” she said.
“Communication differences may lead police to misinterpret statements and flat affect or lack of eye contact are wrongly perceived as dishonesty
Monique Blakemore in New York
“Sensory overload in police stations and courtrooms retraumatises victims and judicial systems remain unprepared and unequipped to accommodate neurodivergent survivors.”
Blakemore cited the Judicial College of Victoria (2022), which found that Australian courts rarely provided appropriate accommodations for autistic people — compromising procedural fairness and reducing access to justice.
“Without embedding autistic-led training across all levels of the legal system — from first responders to prosecutors — the cycle of disbelief, retraumatisation, and case dismissal will continue,” she said.
Blakemore’s speech resonated with an international audience of diplomats, UN officials, legal scholars, and fellow advocates.
She called for: autistic-informed justice reform, including courtroom accommodations and accessible procedures; trauma-informed training for police, judiciary, and frontline workers; survivor-led policy development at national and international levels; and legal recognition of the unique barriers autistic women faced in reporting, recalling, and testifying.
She said justice systems around the world must be reformed to reflect the reality of autistic lives — and the truth of autistic trauma.
Blakemore has spoken across five continents, championing the rights of autistic people and survivors of gender-based violence.
She has presented at the United Nations in Geneva and New York, the Houses of Parliament in London and the EU Commission in Brussels, and has co-authored research with the Cambridge University Autism Research Centre.
In Australia, she played a key role in the development of the National Autism Health Roadmap, ensuring lived experience is embedded in national policy.