ENABLE

ENABLING INCLUSION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR DEFENDANTS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES

101056701- ENABLE

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People with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, who are suspects or defendants in criminal proceedings, face multiple barriers to participation in the criminal justice process. These include inaccessible physical environments, lack of information in accessible formats and appropriate communication technologies, and absence of qualified legal aid and representation.  

While the national legislation – general and procedural – may not efficiently transpose the existing United Nations and European Union standards on equal access to justice services and procedural accommodation, the problem is further exacerbated by the lack of awareness, knowledge, and skills in this field of professionals working in the criminal justice system. As a result, cases involving persons with disabilities are often traumatic for them due to the impossibility of adequately exercising their defense rights, but also due to power imbalances these limitations create. 

The two-year project is implemented between 2022 September and 2024 August in 9 EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The project consortium includes:  

• Validity Foundation (project coordinator and implementer in Hungary) 
• Centrul de Resurse Juridice from Romania
• Fenacerci – Federação Nacional de Cooperativas de Solidariedade Social from Portugal
• Fórum pro lidská práva from Czechia
• The International Commission of Jurists  – European Institutions
• KERA Foundation from Bulgaria 
• PIC – Pravni center za varstvo človekovih pravic in okolja from Slovenia
• Confederación Plena Inclusión España from Spain
• Mental Health Perspectives (PSP) from Lithuania 

Project Objectives

• Improve knowledge on participation barriers, and how to overcome them, experienced by defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in the criminal justice system, and particularly by women with disabilities and those who are deprived of their liberty;  

• Improve the capacity of criminal justice professionals (lawyers, police, prosecutors and/or judges) to ensure the provision of reasonable and procedural accommodations in the criminal justice system in accordance with EU and international human rights law  

• Strengthen cooperation and exchange between civil society and criminal justice professionals to optimise access to legal services for defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.  

Implementation Methods

• Research to understand experiences and participation barriers facing defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in the criminal justice system. This includes collecting recommendations from both defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, as well as criminal justice professionals. 
• Development of an adaptable and practice-oriented equal treatment bench book(s) for criminal justice professionals on how to ensure participation, inclusion, and fair treatment of defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.  
• Development of a cross-disciplinary protocol and proposals to improve access to legal services for defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities by linking existing services. It will serve to develop a coordinated approach and a practical response protocol to enhance access to legal services (such as legal aid, access to a lawyer, restorative services).

Project Outcomes

Model Bench Book will be used as a legal resource and advocacy tool to promote legislative changes that lead to procedures that meet the needs of people with disabilities by offering equal access to fair trial and avoiding abusive detention in psychiatric institutions.  

Among others, this resource has been used in a training for judges and prosecutors to be delivered by Validity for the Council of Europe on 10-13 September 2025.  

To advance reform in 8 countries, the Model bench book was adapted to National bench books (See for example: Bulgaria – National Benchbook). The project has had important impact in different countries, such as new institutional agreements between NGOs in Spain and Portugal with justice actors to improve services or create new ones, such as facilitators for defendants with disabilities to have access to accessible communication in Bulgaria.  

Validity has synthesised the findings of the project in the report “Fair Trial Denied”. This report includes a special focus on how female defendants with disabilities are particularly discriminated against in the justice system. This will be used for further advocacy and reform for equal access to justice for people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in the EU and globally.  

All important project deliverables are available also in Easy-to-Read.  

Full Name of the Project

Enabling inclusion and access to justice for defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities (101056701 – ENABLE – JUST-2021-JACC). 

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.