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Article 13 [Access to Justice]

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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

The concept of access to justice has attracted significant attention in international human rights law discourse in recent years. It has been highlighted as key to realising human rights for many marginalised communities, including persons with disabilities, and social movements throughout history have sought to articulate how this right should apply to them to ensure that they can assert and enforce all other human rights. While at first glance the right to access justice might be thought to only refer to ‘justice’ claims pursued through the formal legal system, Lord et al. define access to justice as ‘encompassing people’s effective access to the systems, procedures, information, and locations used in the administration of justice’. Such a broad definition ensures that the conceptualisation of access to justice is framed to address a wide range of scenarios in which persons with disabilities, and others, make claims about their rights, seek to enforce their entitlements or claim justice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, e.g., Ghai and Cottrell (2010), Van de Meene and Van Rooij (2008), Francioni (2007), Genn (2010), Jacobs (2007) and Rhode (2005).

  2. 2.

    See United Nations Enable, Ad Hoc Committee, Working Group to draft a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, Report to the Ad Hoc Committee, Annex I, (16 January 2004), available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahcwgreporta4.htm. Accessed 5 June 2012.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., at footnote 18.

  4. 4.

    Ibid.

  5. 5.

    See United Nations Enable, NGO Comments on the draft text—Draft Article 4, Proposal by Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, (25 May 2004), available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc3ngoa4.htm. Accessed 5 June 2012.

  6. 6.

    United Nations Press Releases, ‘Chairman says draft convention sets out detailed code of implementation and spells out how individual rights should be put into practice’ (15 August 2005), SOC/4680, available at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/soc4680.doc.htm. Accessed 20 April 2012.

  7. 7.

    Landmine Survivors Network, Daily Summary of Discussion at Third Session of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Ad Hoc Committee, 3 June 2004, (Landmine Survivors Network, 2004), Volume 4(8).

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Landmine Survivors Network, Daily Summary of Discussions on Article 9 at Fourth Session of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Ad Hoc Committee, 26 August 2004, (Landmine Survivors Network, 2004), Volume 5(4).

  10. 10.

    See United Nations Enable, Ad Hoc Committee, Working Group to draft a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, Report to the Ad Hoc Committee, Annex I, (16 January 2004), available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahcwgreporta4.htm. Accessed 5 June 2012.

  11. 11.

    Lawson and Flynn (2013), p. 23.

  12. 12.

    United Nations Enable, Article 13, Status of Discussions, Fifth Session, Ad Hoc Committee, Report of the Coordinator, (4 February 2005), available at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahcstata13fisrepcoord.htm. Accessed 12 April 2012.

  13. 13.

    CRPD Committee, List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the initial report of Spain, (2011), CRPD/C/ESP/Q/1, para. 12.

  14. 14.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Written Responses to CRPD Committee List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the initial report of Spain, (2011), CRPD/C/ESP/Q/1, p. 11.

  15. 15.

    CERMI (2010).

  16. 16.

    CERMI (2010), p. 11.

  17. 17.

    Reglamento de Organización y Funcionamiento del Notariado (approved by Royal Decree 45/2007).

  18. 18.

    Article 7.1 Civil Procedure Act 1/2000 (Ley 1/2000 de Enjuiciamiento Civil).

  19. 19.

    CRPD Committee, List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the initial report of Argentina, (2012), CRPD/C/ARG/Q/1, para. 10.

  20. 20.

    CEDAW Committee, Concluding Observations: Argentina (2010) CEDAW/C/ARG/CO/6, para. 16.

  21. 21.

    REDI, CELS, ADC, FAICA, FENDIM (2012), p. 3.

  22. 22.

    REDI, CELS, ADC, FAICA, FENDIM (2012), p. 4.

  23. 23.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Argentina, (2012), CRPD/C/ARG/CO/1, paras. 13–14.

  24. 24.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: El Salvador, (2013), CRPD/C/SLV/CO/1, para. 30.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., paras. 30(a) and (d).

  26. 26.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Mexico, (2014), CRPD/C/MEX/CO/1, para. 26 (c).

  27. 27.

    Supra, n 24 para. 30(c).

  28. 28.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Australia, (2013), CRPD/C/AUS/CO/1, para. 28.

  29. 29.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: New Zealand, (2014), CRPD/C/NZL/CO/1, para. 28.

  30. 30.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Korea, (2014), CRPD/C/KOR/CO/1, para. 24.

  31. 31.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Ecuador, (2014), CRPD/C/ECU/CO/1, para. 27.

  32. 32.

    CRPD Committee, Initial reports submitted by States Parties under article 35 of the Convention: China (2011), CRPD/C/CHN/1, para. 55.

  33. 33.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: China, (2012), CRPD/C/CHN/CO/1, para. 23.

  34. 34.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: El Salvador, (2013), CRPD/C/SLV/CO/1, para. 30 (b).

  35. 35.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Mexico, (2014), CRPD/C/MEX/CO/1, para. 26 (b).

  36. 36.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: China, cit., para. 24.

  37. 37.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Paraguay, (2013), CRPD/C/PRY/CO/1, para 32.

  38. 38.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Australia, cit., para. 29.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., para. 30.

  40. 40.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: New Zealand, cit., para. 24.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., para. 26.

  42. 42.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Mexico, cit., para. 26(a).

  43. 43.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Korea, cit., para. 24.

  44. 44.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Costa Rica, (2014), CRPD/C/CRI/CO/1, para. 26.

  45. 45.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Ecuador, cit., para. 27.

  46. 46.

    Lawson and Flynn (2013).

  47. 47.

    See Article 2 [Definitions] in this Commentary.

  48. 48.

    CRPD Committee, General Comment on Article 9 (2014) CRPD/C/GC/2, para. 22.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., para. 33.

  50. 50.

    CRPD Committee, General Comment on Article 12 (2014) CRPD/C/GC/1, paras. 34–35.

  51. 51.

    Article 13, para. 1, CRPD.

  52. 52.

    Article 2, CRPD.

  53. 53.

    Ibid.

  54. 54.

    Lawson and Flynn (2013), p. 23.

  55. 55.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Mexico, cit., para. 26(a).

  56. 56.

    See Gooding (2000).

  57. 57.

    Ziv (2007), p. 51.

  58. 58.

    CRPD Committee, Concluding Observations: Costa Rica, cit., para. 26.

  59. 59.

    Flynn (2010), p. 23.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Disability Law and Policy, University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Eilionóir Flynn

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  1. Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Valentina Della Fina

  2. Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Rachele Cera

  3. Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Giuseppe Palmisano

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Flynn, E. (2017). Article 13 [Access to Justice]. In: Della Fina, V., Cera, R., Palmisano, G. (eds) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43790-3_17

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