Tag: access to justice
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Zambia’s Historic First: Legal capacity Communication submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
On 21 August 2025, The Validity Foundation, together with the Mental Health Users Network of Zambia (MHUNZA) and Disability Rights Watch (DRW) with the technical support of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), have submitted a landmark communication to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission).…
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Woman with Lived Experience of Institutionalisation Wins Landmark Case Against Psychiatric Hospital in Bulgaria
On 23 April 2025, a district court in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, awarded substantial damages to Tanya Petkova, a woman with psychosocial disabilities, for repeated periods of psychiatric detention and coercive practices violating her dignity and autonomy and for the trauma inflicted upon her. The decision is a rare judicial acknowledgment of the impacts of intersecting…
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Landmark Appeal Filed in SGBV Case Involving Woman with Psychosocial Disability in Uganda
On 12 May 2025, the Validity Foundation, together with our Ugandan partner, the Women’s Probono Initiative (WPI), filed submissions before the Court of Appeal in Kampala in a precedent-setting case concerning sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women with psychosocial disabilities. The Appellant, a woman with a psychosocial disability, was sexually assaulted by a private…
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ENIL and Validity reaction to the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the European Union
The European Network on Independent Living – ENIL and the Validity Foundation welcome the adoption of the concluding observations on the combined second and third periodic reports of the European Union by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee). In the concluding observations, adopted on 18 March, the CRPD…
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Update: Validity’s work at the United Nations
At the beginning of 2025, Validity worked on and submitted three submissions to UN Treaty Bodies. We contributed to the work of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee). Holding the EU Accountable: Validity’s Submission…
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Seasonal Appeal 2024
In 2024, our client Victor achieved a major victory at the European Court of Human Rights. His experience of torture and discrimination as a young person in Moldova was recognised as a grave human rights violation by the highest court in Europe. The judgment represents a major step forward for Victor and others in similar…
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Marking the legacy of Gábor Gombos
UPDATE We remember Gábor Gombos, who passed away on 5 June 2022. Gábor’s work shaped the Hungarian and international disability movement, and his stories, presentations, speeches, and thoughts went to the heart of his audience. The book titled ’The World – Without Cage Beds: World-Shaping Narratives by Gábor Gombos’ can be ordered here and downloaded…
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Zambia: Zambian authorities must implement the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ recommendations
A range of Zambian organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) and other civil society organizations (CSOs) – who early in March this year made submissions to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Committee) ahead of its examination of Zambia’s compliance with and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights…
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Topház: Court rules Hungarian state authorities responsible for grave disability rights violations
The Budapest Capital Court today issued a judgment finding three state authorities responsible for multiple, grave violations of the rights of 220 adults and children with disabilities detained in the notorious Topház Social Care Home. Validity first exposed the shocking abuses in 2017, reporting on filthy living conditions, violence, torture and ill-treatment, malnutrition and the…
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Czech Constitutional Court Rules in Landmark Decision on Inclusive Education and Access to Justice
On 4 December 2023, in a seminal ruling, the Constitutional Court of Czechia found that a child with disabilities had been unconstitutionally denied access to education and a fair trial due to the failure of the lower courts to adequately address the discrimination claims of a child with autism. The case started in 2015, and…