Validity Foundation - Mental Disability Advocacy Centre



Strategic Litigation as a Gateway to address the rights of Persons with Disabilities in the European Union

101084868 – LITI-GATE

Projektleírás magyarul (Project description in Hungarian)

The LITI-GATE project – Strategic Litigation as a Gateway to address the rights of Persons with Disabilities in the European Union – brings together 6 partners from 5 countries. With LITI-GATE we aim to promote the enforcement of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights through strategic litigation. In particular, we aim to address breaches of the fundamental rights of persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities across the European Union and to ensure that their rights are mainstreamed both at the European Union level as well as at the level of the Member States.

The project objectives are to:

  • Improve knowledge on how to conduct strategic litigation for the benefit of persons with disabilities.
  • Develop practical guidance on how to use EU Charter of Fundamental Rights for strategic litigation.
  • Build capacity of national and regional stakeholders on how to conduct strategic litigation.
  • Strengthen cooperation between national and regional organisations of persons with disability (OPDs), victim support organisations and relevant EU networks to enforce the Charter for persons with disabilities victims of fundamental rights breaches.

This will be achieved through the combined implementation of the following activities:

  • Research on how to conduct strategic litigation at national level, it includes mapping the relevant mechanisms, assessing the national legal framework and the possibility to use the EU charter in regards of rights for persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
  • Development of a Strategic Litigation Guidebook based on EU and national laws, incorporating best practices in strategic litigation as well as pitfalls and solutions for enhancing the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights for the benefit of persons with disabilities.
  • Designing and executing training sessions for key stakeholders—including lawyers, persons with disabilities, representatives from organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), service providers, and members of local NGOs—aimed at enhancing the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.
  • Enhancing multistakeholder collaboration by facilitating the exchange of best practices. This involves organising webinars and training sessions at the European level, as well as conducting working sessions at the national level. These efforts aim to align project outcomes with the needs of local persons with disabilities, ensuring their active participation and ownership of the project results.
  • Implementation of communication and dissemination activities to ensure that relevant national stakeholders can efficiently use the project deliverables and defend the rights of persons with disabilities in their jurisdictions.

Expertise

Validity Foundation as well as the members of the Consortium have been active for many years in identifying and pursuing strategic litigation cases to address fundamental rights breaches of persons with disabilities both nationally and internationally. To give but few examples, Validity Foundation together with Kera Foundation have brought the case of Stanev v Bulgaria before domestic courts and ultimately before the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR). This case is the leading European case regarding guardianship and psychiatric detention. Validity and Forum have litigated cases of strategic importance before the UN Committee Against Torture (Cernakova v Slovakia), the Human Rights Committee (Lazarova v Bulgaria); the European Committee on Social Rights (European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) v. Czech Republic), and many cases before the ECtHR, the latest being the case of V v. the Czech Republic. Centre for Legal Resources has brought the leading case of Valentin Campeanu v Romania before national courts and ultimately before the ECtHR. In Hungary, Validity has successfully challenged violations of voting rights for people with disabilities (Alajos Kiss v Hungary).

Legal Background

Duration of the project

The project, funded by the European Education and Culture Executive agency of the European Commission, started in September 2023 and runs for 24 months.

Consortium partners

Each participating country is represented in the consortium by an experienced NGO involved in the implementation of the project, as follows:

 

Full name of the project

Strategic Litigation as a Gateway to address the rights of Persons with Disabilities in the European Union (101084868 – LITI-GATE- CERV-2022-CHAR)

This project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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