Improving Access to Justice for persons with Disabilities

Monday 28 January 2019

One of the critical every day struggles for persons with disabilities is access to justice system and lack of opportunities to claim their rights violations. They face with lack of accessibility to justice institutions, not only in terms of physical environments, but also in communication and assistive devices; incomplete practices, legislation, administrative rules and regulations, in the area that guarantee access to justice for persons with disability; lack of capacities amongst relevant institutions and, staff of the justice system institutions, which know very little or at all about disability and specifi cally about disability rights. To contribute to this situation ADRF, during March – June 2018, managed to successfully involve and raise capacity of 19 key institutions and 70 representatives of the Albanian justice system structures. These institutions ranged from representatives of High Court of Albania, Appeal Court and Administrative Appeal Court of Tirana, Judges of District Courts and Administrative Courts, Prosecutors and Judicial Police Offi cers representatives of Prosecutor Offices in the five targeted areas, (Tirana, Lezha, Mat, Gjirokastra and Durrës) to Representative of the Court Budget Office and the representatives of People Ombudsman and Commissioner of Anti-discrimination Offi ce in Tirana. The knowledge gained, by these institutions, through the provision of the training program entailed the international and national standards of access to justice for persons with disabilities specifi ed by their type of disability, physical, sensorial or intellectual disability. It focused especially on the article 12 and 13 of “UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disability” and the legal practice of the “European Court of Human Rights” (Court of Strasburg) on the disability issues on the right to fair trail, right to life and on torture prohibition.

This training program is fully in line with the article 131 of the “UN Convention for the Rights of Peoples with Disability” (ratified by Albanian Parliament with law 108/2012) where it is clearly stated the importance of providing the appropriated trainings on access to justice for persons with disabilities for the staff working in the fi eld of administration of justice. The participants in this capacity building program emphasized that the training format delivered to them is the only one of its kind offered for the court and prosecution staff, as it specifically addresses accessibility elements for each type of people with disability, in line with legal practice of Court of Strasbourg and with the recommendations of the Committee of UN Convention for the Rights of People with Disability.

The fact that in this training was addressed one of the problems that courts and persecutors offi ces faced during judicial processes with the categories of people with disability...
... I highly appreciate the practical cases handled and the international standards presented ...” “Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this training. This training is significant and motivating for state institutions, in increasing the access to court for the category of people with disabilities...
Participating in this training we have increased knowledge on guaranteeing access to justice for people with disability. As well as the practical models presented during this training will help our staff in taking institutional measure on enabling access to justice for the all categories of people with disabilities...
...this training makes us aware of the access to the court for all categories of people with disability, as well as in reviewing the possibilities for legislative improvements in this regard...
I had the opportunity to further deepen the information about aspects that can be improved in the premises of the institution that I represent, to guarantee access to justice for the people with disability...
...This training made me refl ect, to pay more attention and to apply in practice the legal obligations for the category of people with disabilities...
In 90% of the “evaluation forms” fi lled by the participants was emphasized the need for replication of this training format, through presenting the best international practices and experiences for the category of people with disabilities in the field of access to justice. This capacity building program is implemented in the framework of the project “Emerging inclusive approaches of access to justice to ensure equal access for persons with disabilities”. It is part of the sub granting scheme of the project Civic Engagement for a functional judiciary system and access to justice in Albania, funded by European Union and implemented by Save the Children and Centre of Integrated Legal Services and Practices. This project achieved to increase awareness and accountability of at least 19 key institutions and for at least 70 representatives of the Albanian justice system in the fi ve targeted areas: Tirana, Lezha, Mat, Gjirokastra and Durrës, addressing a very specific issue faced by people with disability in regard to lack of accessibility of justice institutions, not only in terms of physical environments, but also in communication and assistive devices in the area that guarantee access to justice. This project also contributed on initiating a constructive dialogue among law-enforcement professionals on ensuring effective and full access to justice for all categories of people with disabilities in line with “UN Convention for the Rights of Peoples with Disability”.