The International Symposium/ Conference on Access to Justice was a large-scale event that aimed to raise awareness and mobilise the most important national and international stakeholders around the systemic challenges that people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities face when participating in criminal cases in Europe and beyond, as well as to advocate for reforms and expansion of existing good practices in this field.
Originally planned for Brussels, the Consortium Partners decided to hold the ENABLE project International Symposium/ Conference on Access to Justice in Madrid, Spain, rather than Belgium, after extensive internal discussion and consultation with the donor representative. This decision was made for very practical reasons: despite the overall worrying situation in all Consortium countries in terms of access to justice and fair trial rights for defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, Spain has consistently emerged as the country with the most advanced policies, practices, and cross-sectoral partnerships in the field. At the same time, Plena Inclusion, the Implementing Partner organisation from Spain, had very promising results in involving people with disabilities, who have relevant lived experiences, in reform dialogue with authorities and capacity building activities aimed at changing perceptions, informing criminal justice professionals and decision-makers about the practical implementation of international standards on access to justice, procedural accommodations, and fair trial rights.
In coordination with Plena Inclusion, based on the findings of the ENABLE project, including the barriers that defendants/accused with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities face in criminal cases, as well as the promising practices learnt in Spain, the event was structured in four Panel Speaker discussions, a Keynote speech and a welcome, and closing remarks. In addition, a networking workshop for in-person participants has been scheduled, beginning at 14.00 and lasting until 16.00.
The event, titled “ACCESS TO JUSTICE: Equal participation and fair trial rights in criminal cases for persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities”, took place on June 17, in Madrid, at the Meeting Place, Calle Orense 34, 28020, between 09.45 and 16.00 1.
The opening remarks have been delivered by Steven Allen, the director of Validity Foundation and Enrique Galván, director of Plena inclusion, while the discussions were moderated by Jordá Vives, a person with intellectual disabilities with experience in participating in criminal proceedings (expert by experience).
The following four Panels involved discussions with expert by experience, criminal justice professionals, service providers and representatives of academia and focused on critical topics, including:
- Early identification of accommodation needs, essential for ensuring equal participation in criminal proceedings and fair trials for people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.
- The gap between procedural accommodation requirements and realities, and the measures that criminal justice actors—such as judges, prosecutors, and lawyers—as well as national policymakers, need to implement to drive meaningful reform.
- Alternatives to the “insanity defence,” exploring developments in international human rights jurisprudence and current exceptions within some states’ criminal legislation.
For those attending in-person, a networking workshops with snacks has been provided, where participants reflected on what should be the next steps for scaling existing progress, how they can contribute to fostering inter-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaboration, and the “way forward for the abolition of the insanity defence”.
The event, organised in a hybrid format and providing simultaneous translation in Spanish-English-Spanish languages, Sign Language, and Human Captioning, had around 400 participants, attending from Colombia, Afghanistan, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Hungary, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, England, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Netherlands, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Venezuela and Zambia. From Spain, the event was attended by participants from Castilla la Mancha, Madrid, Andalucía, Comunidad Valenciana, Navarra, La Rioja, País Vasco, Canarias, Cataluña, Galicia, Murcia, Islas Baleares, Castilla y León, Asturias, Cantabria, Extremadura and Aragón.