Convention of Rights 14: Right to access justice

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) forms the foundation of disability rights laws in Uganda and is the model for the Persons With Disabilities Act (PWDA) 2006. The CRPD underlines and recognizes that persons with disabilities (PWDs) are entitled to all the human rights enunciated in the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you are a PWD the rights in the CRPD are your rights, if you do not have a disability it is your duty to uphold and promote these rights.

Article 13 of the CRPD says PWDs have the right to access justice on an equal basis with others. That includes the provision of procedural and age appropriate help and support to facilitate the direct and indirect participation in all stages of the legal process. The same help and support should be available for PWDs acting as witnesses. All people working in the legal system should have appropriate training in working with PWDs, that includes police and prison staff.

Access to justice is a broad concept that means access to all areas of the legal system. For example if you feel you have been denied the right to work, you may wish to seek justice. If the courts fail to accommodate you, then besides being denied the right to justice, you are being denied the protection of the right to work. Again if you have been the victim of crime and you want to press charges, if you cannot access the police station, or you cannot get understandable information, or you cannot clearly communicate with the police you are being denied the right to access justice.

Other rights in the CRPD may also impact upon this right. If you cannot travel to a police station or court, you are being denied access to justice. Again a PWD who has been denied the right to education may find participation in the legal system difficult or impossible. One point becomes clear, all the rights in the CRPD are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. 

The CRPD says that barriers to access justice should be removed. PWDs have the right to access the courts on an equal basis with everyone else. The Human Rights Library information page Human Rights. Yes! Access to Justice says:

The duty to accommodate persons with disabilities in court and other legal proceedings, such as administrative hearings, relates to the fundamental right to be heard. Access must be provided at all stages of a judicial process and must be provided to all participants.

There are two central aspects of ensuring access to courts:

General Accessibility: The first is to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to address general accessibility concerns, including identifying and removing architectural barriers in courthouses, providing materials in alternative formats, making court websites accessible for people who use assistive technology, and installing listening systems in courtrooms.

Individualized Accessibility: The second aspect of ensuring access to courts relates to the provision of individualized accessibility to respond to an individual’s needs to ensure equality of opportunity in the administration of justice. This may include providing a sign language interpreter for a person who is deaf, a reader for a witness who is blind, or frequent breaks for a defendant who has a psychosocial disability.

If you live in Uganda and have a mental health problem you may be denied justice entirely. The 2011 post Uganda: Access to Court for People with Mental Disabilies from The Mental Disability Advocacy Centre identifies the following problems:

• The use of outdated and discriminatory terminology such as "idiot", "persons of unsound mind" and "lunatic" in court papers and processes which entrench stigma; 
• People with intellectual or psycho-social disabilities are legally denied the right to bring or defend cases and their evidence is deemed to lack credibility or refused; 
• Some people with disabilities cannot navigate or understand the complex processes required to initiate or defend cases, and no support is provided to them to do so; 
• Rigid application of rules of procedure in a way which is likely to deny substantive access to justice; 
• Imposition of court fees discourages or prohibits people from claiming their rights through the courts; 
• People with disabilities have their cases taken over by guardians ad litem or other substitute decision-makers, without the need for their consent; and 
• People with disabilities are arbitrarily detained during criminal procedures, sometimes left to languish for decades in detention.

If you are a PWD you have the right to access justice on an equal basis with every other citizen in Uganda.

A lack of communication can have devastating effects on deaf women.
Recently, 93 police officers around Uganda graduated in sign language through our project. They’ve even set up a WhatsApp group so that when a deaf woman reports a crime, they can send a trained officer to support her.

This is written in Article 13 of the CRPD in the following way:

Article 13

Access to justice

1. States Parties shall ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others, including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations, in order to facilitate their effective role as direct and indirect participants, including as witnesses, in all legal proceedings, including at investigative and other preliminary stages.

2. In order to help to ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities, States Parties shall promote appropriate training for those working in the field of administration of justice, including police and prison staff.