Justice, Rights and Inclusion for People with Intellectual Disabilities

Present juridical structures and practices make it very difficult, if not impossible, for people with intellectual disability to efficiently claim and exercise their rights. Therefore this project has explored how the access of this group to justice can be improved. It focused on three areas of special concern for people with mental disabilities:

• Legal capacity and guardianship
• The right to services and support
• Access to rights and justice

Results:

Phase 1: Partners have conducted a survey to identify the situation regarding three issues identified above. This survey showed clearly that people who have low literacy skills and difficulties to understand complex legal language have very limited access to justice and very limited possibilities to claim their legal rights.

Phase 2: The project partnership addressed the priority issues on three distinct levels.

• At the level of policy and legislation to develop a White Book on Legal Incapacitation and Access to Rights for people with intellectual disabilities. The White Book contains European minimum standards and recommendations developed in cooperation with all members of Inclusion Europe.
• At the level of the training of legal professionals and the public administration, a European Training Package was developed to inform legal professionals, legal students and staff of the public administration about measures to improve the access to rights and justice for people with intellectual disabilities.
• At the level of the training and information of people with intellectual disability and their families, the partnership developed easy-to-understand information explaining the rights of people with intellectual disability.

The project also developed easy-to-read information about the European strategy against social exclusion and published it in all EU country languages.

The results of the project are available in different European languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Polish