Access to Justice

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Access to Justice encompasses the right to an effective remedy and reparation for human rights violations, as well as the right to be treated fairly in legal proceedings. Under CRPD, criminal law issues come under access to justice as well as the rights to liberty and legal capacity.

Key points on Access to Justice

  • People with disabilities are equal moral subjects as others – having the same right to assert moral claims and counterclaims
  • We have a right to effective remedies for violations – to have the violation stop immediately and have the harm repaired
  • Equal accountability for violating the rights of others means that we are held to the same standards and have the same rights to defend ourselves when accused
  • Unfair procedures and standards in criminal law have to be changed in ways that work for everyone including people with disabilities

International Law Materials

Legal Proceedings, Arbitrary Detention, Remedies and Reparation

CRPD Guidelines on Article 14 (2015)

UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Remedies for Arbitrary Deprivation of Liberty (2015)

OHCHR background note on right to liberty and security of PWD and Conclusions (2015)

Decision by CRPD Committee in Arturo Medina Vela case (2019), requiring Mexico to eliminate ‘inimputabilidad’ – incapacity to be held criminally responsible

Principles and Guidelines on Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities (2020)

Remedies and Reparation

UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Right to Remedy and Reparation (2005)

CRPD Guidelines on Deinstitutionalization (2022) – Section IX, remedy and reparation for all forms of institutionalization

Advocacy and Scholarship

CRPD and Criminal Law

Daniel Hazen presentation on mental health, criminal justice and trauma (2010)

WNUSP discussion paper on mental health and prisons (2010)

WNUSP advocacy in the process to revise Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners – NB the revised SMR continues to provide for transfer to mental health setting of persons deemed non-responsible:

WNUSP/IDA submission to SPT on ‘mental health and places of deprivation of liberty‘ (2012) 

WNUSP/ENUSP/IDA/MDAC amicus brief in Koroviny v Russia (2013)

Minkowitz presentation on Insanity Defense Abolition and Alternatives (2014)

Minkowitz, Responsibility – legal and spiritual (blog post) (2015)

Minkowitz, Rethinking Criminal Responsibility (2015) – arguing for formal and substantive equality, taking account of disability within ordinary mens rea and defenses

Amicus brief to International Criminal Court in Ongwen case (insanity defense), Minkowitz and Robert D. Fleischner (2021)

Access to Justice Knowledge Hub Policy Brief (2022) – English and Spanish and Chinese – includes policy on CRPD-compliant approach to criminal responsibility based on Ongwen case amicus

Amicus brief to Mexico City Court arguing for elimination of ‘inimputability’ (incapacity to be held responsible), and involuntary psychiatric interventions imposed as security measure, Minkowitz and Fleischner (2023) – Spanish and English

See also Legal Capacity page

Restorative Justice and Community Safety

Access to Justice Knowledge Hub, Community Safety Survey in English/ Spanish/ EZ read-plain language, and Discussion Guide (2022)

Minkowitz, Reimagining Crisis Support (2021) / Reimaginar el Apoyo en Crisis (2023)- sections on De-escalation, Duties toward others, and Building Community Accountability

Minkowitz, Justice as Moral Reconciliation: Linda Radzik on Making Amends (slides) (2023) – presentation to Access to Justice Knowledge Hub

Reparations for Forced Psychiatry

Minkowitz, Forced psychiatric interventions: right to remedy and reparation (2010)

Orefellen, Torture and other ill-treatment in psychiatry – urgent need for effective remedies, redress and guarantees of non-repetition (2015)

Minkowitz, Decision-making and moral injury (blog post) (2015)

CHRUSP Third-Party Intervention in Daniels v Australia under CRPD Optional Protocol (n.d., likely 2017)

Tina Minkowitz, CRPD Consultation on Deinstitutionalization: A Reparations Approach (2021) (blog post)

CHRUSP statement to the Caribbean and North American regional consultation on deinstitutionalization (2021) emphasizing reparations

CHRUSP side event at CRPD Conference of States Parties on Reparations for Institutionalization (video recording) (2022) – in English, Spanish, Chinese and French

Not Before Time: Lived Experience-Led Justice and Repair – Simon Katterl et al (n.d., likely 2023) – this is great for their methodology of studying other examples of reparation and for their consultation of survivors – but problematic for 1) being conducted under mental health auspices, 2) not recommending guarantees of non-repetition, 3) including carers on par with survivors as victims of harm

Questionnaire on Reparations for Survivors – in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese

Minkowitz, Intervention in Reparations panel, CRPD anniversary of Guidelines on Deinstitutionalization (2023) – English and Spanish

Minkowitz/CHRUSP amicus brief to Mexico’s Supreme Court (2023) English and Spanish auto-translate – in deinstitutionalization case, arguing for systematic ending of involuntary mental health measures and guarantees of non-repetition

CHRUSP submission to Special Rapporteur on Torture, on victims’ experiences and perspectives (2025)

CHRUSP Indicators
Note on ‘Equal Moral Subjects’

*The concept of being equal moral subjects is implicit in human rights law. See Article 1 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’