Enhancing Deaf People’s Access to Justice in Northern Ireland: Implementing Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Bronagh Byrne,Michael Schwartz,Brent Elder

doi:10.16993/sjdr.744

Abstract

Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) specifies that disabled people have the right to ‘effective access to justice’ on an equal basis with others. This includes Deaf people. There is a distinct lack of research which explores the extent to which Article 13 UNCRPD is implemented in practice and which actively involves Deaf people in its implementation and monitoring. This paper shares findings from a rights-based research study co-produced with a Deaf Advisory Group and a Deaf-led organisation. It explores the implementation of Article 13 UNCRPD in Northern Ireland through the experiences of key stakeholders across the justice system including police officers, solicitors, barristers, and judges. The findings of this research study suggest that Deaf people’s access to the justice system is not well supported and that current provisions for Deaf people’s legal needs fall well short of what is required by the UNCRPD.

Highlights

Effective and timely access to justice is a key human right enshrined across international, regional, and national law
Given that the perspectives of Deaf people in Northern Ireland had been ascertained through the BDA(NI) (2016) Access to Justice consultation and the work of Elder and Schwartz (2018) and Schwartz and Elder (2018), it was decided by the project partners that the present study would focus on the perspectives and experiences of duty-bearers across the justice system
The findings of this study suggest that Deaf people’s access to the justice system is inconsistent and not well supported

Summary

Introduction

Effective and timely access to justice is a key human right enshrined across international, regional, and national law. Article 13 of the UNCRPD specifies that disabled – including Deaf – people have the right to ‘effective access to justice’ on an equal basis with others (UNCRPD 2006). In order to ensure effective access to justice, state parties are required to promote appropriate training for those working in the field of administration of justice, including police and prison staff (Article 13(2)). Despite these obligations, there is a distinct lack of academic research that explicitly explores the extent to which Article 13 UNCRPD is being implemented in practice. This is despite empirical evidence from the Deaf community highlighting lack of access

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Conclusion