International Speaker

Monique has spoken on five continents, including at the United Nations in Geneva and New York

2025

United Nations, New York. June 2025

I spoke at the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) at the event Numbers Don’t Lie. Disability Autism, Sexual Abuse & Bodily Autonomy. This event was sponsored by the Malta and Spanish Governments and co-sponsored by UN CEDAW and UN CRPD. 

 

 

United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. February 2025

I spoke for the CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) 90th Session at the half day discussion on Gender Stereotypes. My speech was supported by a written submission. 

Australian Government, Department of Social Services and Aged Care. April 2025.
A talk to the Australian delegation to the United Nations – The Power of Being Curious in a World That Wants to Talk
“I want to start with a truth that shapes how I walk through the world: Advocacy is not my job. It’s my passion. My life purpose. My responsibility to my family, my friends and the community I am part of, the Autistic community.
As an Autistic mother I advocate because I love. I advocate because the truest legacy I hope to leave behind is a more equitable world. Not just for my children but for the Autistic grandchildren I hope to be blessed with one day. And in my advocacy journey nearing on two decades the most powerful tool I’ve found is curiousity. We live in a world that’s often too quick to talk. To state. To decide. To speak for others. But what if we led instead with curiousity? When I’m curious, I don’t assume. I ask. I listen. I observe. I learn. And that’s where real connection happens. Not in trying to prove we have the answers but in being open enough to ask better questions.
My Autistic community — the global network of passionate, determined, extraordinary advocates I am part of— has taught me that our stories don’t stop at borders. Never was this truer than a lobby in Marrakesh at the World Human Rights Forum, we had few shared languages but with open laptops and google translate as our tool showing us how connected we all were in our vision, our purpose and our lives stories.

One of my dear friends, Alistair, we started our journey together at the European Commission in Brussels. What brought us together wasn’t a title or a policy brief. It was curiosity. We sat beside each other asking questions, not just about systems, but about people, us, our work and our lives. Building a friendship. Valued colleagues. A side event at CoSP co-created with care and purpose with sponsorship by the Spanish and Malta governments. And we have history of doing this together. And to me, that’s what intentional networking looks like. Not handing out business cards. But building relationships rooted in respect.

So what do we do with that when we go home? As Australians privileged to be part of global conversations at CoSP how do we bring that curiosity back to our communities? We open space. We make room for global voices in local places. We build communities that don’t stop at the edge of a postcode or a policy area. We recognise that though we are an island we do not need to have an island isolatist perspective. Curiosity helps us do that.
So I’ll leave you with this: In a world full of noise, curiosity is quiet but powerful. My advice for CoSP, be people who don’t just talk. Listen with the intention to understand. Be, and stay, curious. And do that for our communities, as part of the human experience, and for the children and grandchildren yet to come”.

 

Previous Years

Parliament House, Sydney Australia. Guest of Israel Embassy and Rev Fred Nile MP. 

A Question and Answer panel discussion following the screening of Hebrew Language film ‘Laces’.  Co-hosted by the NSW Parliament friends of Israel and the Embassy of Israel in Canberra with the endorsement and support from Ambassador Amir Maimon & Deputy Ambassador Chris Cantor from the Israeli Embassy to Australia. The panel included star of the film Nevo Kimchi, disability advocate Dr Charlene Zulman, Jeremy Unger from Israeli Trade and Economic Commission.

Master of Ceremonies for the
national launch of the Senate Autism Inquiry Final Report

The launch of the Senate Report was delivered via webinar alongside:
• Senator Hollie Hughes (Chair)
• Senator Carol Brown (Deputy Chair)
• Ms. Jenny Karavolas, Chair of the Australian Autism Alliance

The inquiry was the most extensive parliamentary process ever undertaken
in Australia regarding the life outcomes, rights, and needs of autistic people.

Speech For Launch Of the Senate Autism Inquiry Report

“On the 25th March the Senate Select Committee Inquiry’s history-making report on Autism was tabled in Parliament. This Select Committee Inquiry report has the capacity to make a significant and tangible improvement to the lives of the 650,000 Autistic people, their families and carers living in Australia. This is the first time there has been such a broad-ranging national inquiry into our lives.

We now have over 80 recommendations for positive change across diagnosis, education, healthcare, employment, housing, social inclusion, advocacy, research, justice and rights. Central to the report is a recommendation for a National Autism Strategy to be co-designed with Autistic people and the autism community, that will coordinate initiatives across government and address whole-of-life needs.

The Australian Autism Alliance commend the committee for recognising the needs of vulnerable sectors of our community including First Nations, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities, people with complex needs, gender diverse, low income, and those who live in remote communities. The report contains important recommendations to address our intersectional inequities.

As an Autistic advocate, and the mother of two Autistic young men, I am glad to see the needs of Autistic women and girls, barriers to diagnosis, our reproductive and maternal health, stigma and discrimination of being parents was highlighted.

As a community we know that outcomes for Autistic people are worse than what they are for the general population, and indeed, worse than other disability groups. Disability policies have failed to capture the needs of Autistic people. We have fallen through systemic gaps.

For this inquiry, our community made sure we were heard with over 180 submissions and many providing testimony at the hearings.

In participating in the Inquiry, Autistic people, their parents and carers have had to revisit incidents of deep pain and inequality. It has been at times traumatising. The Australian Autism Alliance honours your personal commitment to inform the committee despite the personal sacrifice this may have had to yourself.

We recognise that not every single Autistic person or organisation will agree with every recommendation in this report. Critically, we finally have in front of us a plan to make a real difference for our future. We, the autism and Autistic communities, must come together and be a united voice to ensure the recommendations of this report are implemented”.

United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Volunteerism – Avenue for Social Transformation’ Conference organised by Russia ICVolunteers in partnership with the UN-mandated University for Peace and the Forum of Catholic-Inspired NGOs.  

United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. 

Working with Erich KofneI, from Autistic Minority International, we arranged a private thematic briefing for UN CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women).

Advocating alongside me:
– Dr. Catriona Anne Stewart, Scottish, Scottish Women’s Chair in Autism Network (SWAN)
– Alexa Pohl, American, PhD student on autism and motherhood at the University of Cambridge (Autism Research Center) in England.
– Magali Pignard, French, Association Francophone de Femmes Autistes
Presentation by Ms Blakemore to CEDAW, United Nations 
“Autistic women are a marginalised sector of the worlds largest minority group, the disabled community. There is an estimated 51,870,000 Autistic women worldwide, a similar population to England.
Autistic women are subjected to systemic disadvantage in most areas of their lives. Autistic women experience exclusion socially, in education, in their personal lives, in the judicial system and in access to healthcare. Autistic leadership, exemplified by organizations such as Autism Women Matter, the Scottish Women’s Autism Network (SWAN) and Alliance Autiste, is necessary to challenge stigma and discrimination.
Real, effective, and meaningful participation of Autistic people, regardless of gender, is encapsulated in the phrase ‘nothing about us without us’ and is the aim of the Autistic rights movement.  Representation of Autistic people by groups and individuals is frequently unfunded and unsupported. Unfortunately, ‘tokenism’, which is the illusion of consultation, is over-representative of the Autistic advocacy experience. Autistic voices can be crowded out by those of professionals and parent caregivers that love and support us, but may see autism through their own experience.
Many Autistic people do not know what their rights and entitlements are. Additionally, unmet disability needs of Autistic persons are a further barrier to accessing human rights, as unsupported persons may not have developed the skillset and coping mechanisms to obtain those rights without structured and planned support. For Autistic women, disability intersects with gender. As more males than females are diagnosed with autism, the needs and experiences of Autistic women are often overlooked. Furthermore, many Autistic women have their diagnoses questioned or discarded, as autism is still perceived to be a primarily male condition. As a result, Autistic women find it difficult to access to reasonable adjustments in traditionally female social roles (such as childcare), or in female-specific services (such as access to reproductive healthcare). These problems are further compounded for those Autistic persons who also have a non-binary gender identity but a female body.
Issues affecting Autistic women are often excluded from the conversation within the Autistic community. Just in trying to get the research on mothers completed, childless and single autistic males in charge of large autism lists made value judgements on what information women had access to. This potentially limited the number of participants. While progress has been made in recognising the barriers to accessing diagnostic services for women, other issues, such as parenthood and access to reproductive healthcare and married life, go overlooked.
The number of parents that are Autistic is unknown. Autism is a neurological difference that is both genetic and hereditary with many Autistic children having at least one Autistic parent or other relative that is Autistic. Against the enacted stigma by professionals some mothers may view it ‘unsafe’ to disclose their disability or to seek a clinical diagnosis. Those fears are not entirely without merit.
Reports from peer advocates and groups reflect an over-involvement of Autistic parents in child protection proceedings. Most have endured years of systemic injustice, misunderstandings by professionals and inadequate assessments. Due consideration to ensuring service provision aimed at supporting parent capabilities has been absent.  Furthermore, due to the medical community’s delay in recognizing Autistic women, many women that are Autistic but have not been diagnosed, or are unaware of their autism, have entered into child protection proceedings without the accommodations they would otherwise be entitled to.
Autistic women find they are presumed to be incompetent by the very professionals meant to assess and support their parenting without bias. Having a disability, being Autistic, should never be accepted as the overriding reason to remove children, against their wishes, from their families; indeed, it would be a violation of human rights.
Children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, neglect and violence. But children are also violated by unwarranted removal from their families without their consent. A 2015 fact-finding report by the Council of Europe Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development found that ‘England and Wales are really unique in Europe in placing so many children for adoption, in particular in the young age group which is “popular” on the adoption market’. Further, children are removed from their families as a precaution against ‘future emotional harm’ where no current or past abuse, neglect or violence has occurred, and frequently alongside allegations of Munchausen by Proxy (Fabricated Illness).
Autistic family life is a natural component of society. No woman should need to consider systemic injustice and human rights violations as part of her future reproductive choices. No woman should have to hide her disability or have her disability unrecognised through failures of the systems meant to support her. The rights of Autistic women can only be viewed as a crisis requiring immediate support by the international community. Proportionally, no other community of disabled women is being violated through stigmatisation and discrimination, on such a grand scale, in the numbers that we represent”.

United Nations, New York, USA. 

I spoke about autism, education and the need for tailored sex education. At the United Nations, an “intervention speech” is a formal statement to try and influence decisions or advance a position on an international issue. 

United Nations, New York, USA.

Leave No Autistic Mother Behind panel discussion. Sponsored by the Malta Government and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).

Morocco, Online Presentation. 

Let’s See Autism As Neurodiversity panel event was formulated after connecting with Ferdaoud Eddhimine after the passing of our mutual friend, Soumia Armani. Soumia was a central figure in bringing autism awareness to Morocco that led to her election as a member of the UN CRPD.

My co presenters were:

– Mehdi Benmousa, Morocco/France

– Meryem Ouahmane, Morocco/Canada

– Bob Buckley, Australia

– Geraldine Robertson, Australia.

 

International Book Fair, Casablanca, Morocco

An event with over 25,000 attendees where I presented on Autistic women and girls. A rich learning experience, meeting advocates and change makers from countries not yet reached in my work including Mustafa Barghouti, who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, also known as al-Mubadara, and head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

World Human Rights Forum, Marrakesh, Morocco. 

This event was held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI. With over 7,000 participants, including human rights activists, academics, policymakers, representatives from UN agencies, and civil society organizations from around 95 countries.

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