Access to Justice for Women with Intellectual or Psychosocial Disabilities

Jaspreet Kaur Sekhon, disability self-advocate from Singapore, delivers keynote address on World Down Syndrome Day, United Nations Headquarters. Photo: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

To make justice for all a reality, we must put front and centre those who find it hardest to access justice. Women with disabilities are among those who encounter the greatest justice obstacles, yet have some of the greatest justice needs. Women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities face a complex set of barriers to justice due to restrictions on their legal capacity, lack of equal recognition before the law, and questions about their credibility by justice actors and community members.

Legal Capacity for all (2021) Originally published by the Office of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Justice for all means disability-inclusive justice

When the justice system denies women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities their legal capacity and is unresponsive to their needs, it puts them at greater risk of human rights violations and abuse, emboldens perpetrators, and creates an environment where women with disabilities are less likely to come forward, report offences, or use the justice system.

A shift towards gender and disability-inclusive justice starts with empowering women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities to voice their legal needs, participate in the design of justice solutions, and promote open and transparent justice mechanisms where diverse partners, such as disability support persons, can play a role. Together, we can rethink justice with the lived experience of women with disabilities at its core, to ensure justice for all by 2030 that leaves no one behind.

Principle 1

All persons with disabilities have legal capacity and, therefore, no one shall be denied access to justice on the basis of disability.

The International Principles and Guidelines an Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities provide practical instruction on how to ensure access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

Barriers to justice

Click through the slideshow to learn about some of the persistent barriers to justice for women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This information is also available in Easy Read

The right to access to justice for persons with disabilities is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD recognizes that women and girls with disabilities face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and that additional measures should be taken to ensure their rights.