Inclusion Europe's Working Group on Legal Issues

One of Inclusion Europe's aims is "voicing the concerns and expectations of people with intellectual disabilities that are exposed to social exclusion and discrimination and formulating them to influence policy making at EU and national levels."

The work of the Working Group on Human Rights and Non-discrimination, composed of several experts, who are legal and policy officers from different countries, focuses on the following themes:

A Europe committed to equal rights for all citizens: legal capacity, access to justice and effective protection against discrimination: the Working Group supports the work of Inclusion Europe to develop concepts and policies to implement full legal capacity, access to justice and protection against discrimination as essential elements of European Union policies in line with the UN CRPD.

The Working group engages with the main stakeholders on legal capacity and supported decision-making to monitor progress and to discuss new initiatives. It promotes best practices and exchange of experiences on supported decision-making, legal capacity and access to justice. The Working group lobbies for an effective and comprehensive non-discrimination legislation at EU level, which is in line with the CRPD provisions and promote the enforcement of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

An effective participation of people with intellectual disabilities and their families in the implementation, governance and monitoring of the CRPD. The Working group ensures that the voices of people with intellectual disabilities and their families can be heard in the monitoring, the implementation and the governance of the CRPD. Inclusion Europe makes sure that the concerns of our constituency are formulated and brought to the attention of the monitoring bodies established at national, European and international levels. In collaboration with Inclusion International, the Working group developed trainings and material to support European member associations to use the CRPD monitoring tools and develop alternative reports to the CRPD Committee. In addition, Inclusion Europe develops strategies to EU-level monitoring in collaboration with the European Disability Forum and other stakeholders.