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Disabled Justice? Access to Justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities PDF

190 Pages·2015·1.62 MB·English
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Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 DisableD Justice? Disabled Justice? access to Justice and the uN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities presents a well-crafted conceptual framework through which the author provides an intelligent and instructive critique of access to justice for people with disabilities identifying key areas for reform that go to the heart of building an inclusive justice system. Rosemary Kayess, university of New south Wales, australia The CRPD, for the frst time in the history of international human rights law, recognizes access to justice as a distinct human right. Drawing upon the intersectionality inherent to disability, Eilionóir Flynn in this path breaking study competently constitutes the symbolic, procedural, substantive and participatory components of this right. amita Dhanda, centre for Disability studies, Nalsar university of law, india Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 This page has been left blank intentionally Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 Disabled Justice? access to Justice and the uN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities eilioNóiR FlyNN National University of Ireland, Galway Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Eilionóir Flynn 2015 Eilionóir Flynn has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifed as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Flynn, Eilionóir, 1986- author. Disabled justice? : access to justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities / by Eilionóir Flynn. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4724-1859-3 (hardback) 1. People with disabilities – Civil rights. 2. Justice, Administration of. 3. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol (2007 March 30) I. Title. K637.F57 2015 342.08’7 – dc23 2014030032 ISBN 9781472418593 (hbk) ISBN 9781315577432 (ebk) Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 Contents Acknowledgements vii Foreword ix Introduction 1 1 Access to Justice and its Relevance for People with Disabilities 5 2 Access to Justice and its Intellectual Antecedents in International Human Rights Law 21 3 Accessing the Law: Information, Advice and Representation 49 4 Access and Participation in Court: Structures, Evidence and Procedures 83 5 Incorporating Disability in Legal Education and Practice: A Call for Consciousness-Raising 117 6 Participatory Justice, Deliberation and Representation in Public and Political Life 141 Conclusion and Recommendations for Reform 171 Index 175 Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 This page has been left blank intentionally Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 Acknowledgements So many people contributed to the writing of this book. I would frst like to thank Anna Lawson, with whom I frst wrote about this topic, for working with me to develop my ideas about ‘justice’ and ‘access’ in more depth – much of the framework I build in Chapter 1 and the analysis of existing human rights law in Chapter 2 draws on our article on this topic. I also want to thank Theresia Degener for kindly agreeing to write the foreword for this book, and for continuing to produce powerful intersectional scholarship on feminism and disability, while combining her work on the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with educating the next generation of students in disability rights. My profound gratitude also goes to Sara Ryan, who knows all too well how diffcult it is to achieve justice for disabled people, for generously allowing me to use the artwork of her amazing son, Connor Sparrowhawk, also known as ‘LB’, short for Laughing Boy, for the cover of this book. I am incredibly grateful to my students on the LLM in International and Comparative Disability Law, in particular Elizabeth Kamundia, Charlotte May- Simera, Innocentia Mgijima, Kiran Wagle and Alberto Vasquez, for lively discussions in class on access to justice from a global perspective – and for inviting me to confront the lived reality of people with disabilities in very different parts of the world. Special thanks also go to the staff and student volunteers in the Disability Legal Information Clinic at the National University of Ireland, Galway who actively work to ensure that people with disabilities have the practical means to access justice. I would like to particularly acknowledge Clíona de Bhailís, who in addition to being the student co-ordinator of the Clinic, wrote an excellent minor thesis on litigation capacity which I cite in Chapter 4. I owe a huge debt of thanks to Gerard Quinn for reminding me that I should write this book (since I kept talking about it) – and to all of my colleagues at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy for accommodating me when I kept disappearing to do so. A very special thanks goes to Anna Arstein-Kerslake and Lucy Series – my legal capacity gurus – for many long and fruitful discussions about the nature of justice, and what access to it might mean in the context of disability, as well as for their scholarship on legal capacity and litigation respectively, which I cite throughout Chapters 2 and 3. Finally, as always, I want to thank Eoin Daly, for encouraging me to think about the political dimensions of justice, as well as for his love and support throughout the entire writing process. Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 This page has been left blank intentionally Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017 Foreword Access to justice is one of the many human rights which have been denied to disabled people throughout the world and throughout history. It is sad knowledge that access to justice in most countries is usually available to those who have fnancial, political or cultural power, whereas minorities or other groups experiencing discrimination and subordination are excluded from it. The paradox that those most in need for access to justice are the least likely to receive it remains one of the most compelling human rights issues of the 21st century. People with disabilities, just like women, the LGBTQI community, children or people of colour, belong to these foreclosed groups. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006 (CRPD) enshrines the human right to access to justice in its Article 13. The CRPD is a treaty of many frsts: for example, the frst international human rights treaty of the 21st century, the frst human rights treaty with a mandatory national monitoring body (Article 33), the frst human rights treaty to acknowledge multiple discrimination (Article 6). Another frst can be found in Article 13, which is the frst stand-alone provision in UN human rights treaties on the right to access to justice. As with other provisions of the CRPD, we can expect Article 13 CRPD to lead to further development and improvement of international human rights law in general, once implementation, jurisprudence and legal commentaries have been developed. The present book of Eilionóir Flynn is a highly valuable contribution in this regard. The book touches upon a long neglected subject in disability law and policy. Despite accessibility being the key topic of the disability movement, access to justice for people with disability has not been the target of many campaigns nor has it been theoretically explored. The present book meets the high standard Eilionóir Flynn has set with her frst publication on the CRPD, ‘From Rhetoric to Action’, and in all research and advocacy activities we have undertaken together. This new book offers a brilliant account and further development of theories of justice and how they can be applied to persons with disabilities. Her comprehensive and holistic concept of access to justice contributes to mainstream legal and political theory with a disability and intersectional perspective. It also offers palpable solutions on how to achieve reform: recognition, inclusion and awareness raising are the three main tracks for a roadmap to reform in access to justice. I congratulate Eilionóir Flynn for producing another outstanding contribution to academic knowledge and research in international disability rights studies. No doubt this book will prove to be a useful tool for our work in the UN Committee on Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 23:58 06 June 2017

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