Webinar 'Legal remedies through litigation for the rights of disabled people' November 2020

The ILI projects Disability Rights Defenders and Article 19 as a tool together with the ENIL - the European Network on Independent Living held a webinar on "Legal remedies through strategic litigation for the rights of disabled people"on the 17th of November 2020. The recording of the webinar can be watched on youtube. 

Description:

Even though most countries have ratified the CRPD, the rights of disabled people get violated daily all over the world. In almost every country there are national laws and international agreements which should assure the same rights for disabled people. The main problem is that the laws are widely unenforced, that is why remedies are needed. There is a need for deeper discussions on tools for strategic litigation, including effectiveness of legal and injunctive remedies, different forms of compensation for violations of human rights and procedural strategies for impact, as important tools to fight against violations of disability rights. Thereby, every law system and country has different ways and possibilities to redress violations. In this webinar we want to look at the need for better remedies, access to justice and strategic litigation. We learn from the experience of international experts with strategic litigation and remedies and discuss what kind of changes we would like to see in the remedies available or what kind of new remedies are needed. How can we establish an exchange of international experience and cooperation between organizations in the work towards better remedies?

The following speakers shared their expertise:

• Paul Lappalainen, Swedish/US lawyer, European Equality Law Network: Access to justice / Access to remedies
• Mari Siilsalu, lawyer at Article 19 as a tool, Independent Living Institute: Survey on legal remedies
• Ann Campbell, Co Executive Director at Validity Foundation: Looking beyond compensation: innovative remedies for women with disabilities
• Stellan Gärde, Swedish lawyer and author: A human right - The right to legal aid
• Timothy Hodgson, legal advisor at ICJ, lecturer at University of Pretoria: Economic and social rights litigation

The webinar was moderated by Ola Linder, Swedish lawyer and project leader of Article 19 as a tool. 

About the organizers:

This webinar is organized by Disability Rights Defender (DRD) together with Article 19 as a tool and ENIL - the European Network on Independent Living. 

Disability Rights Defenders is a project of Independent Living Institute (ILI) that promotes equal rights and access to justice by spreading and deepening legal expertise about disability rights for reciprocal empowerment on how to use the law as a tool to combat disability discrimination. 

Article 19 as a tool is a project of ILI, too. It disseminates knowledge of the CRPD, examines the Swedish laws and the degree of implementation compared to the international commitments that follow from the convention. 

ENIL - the European Network on Independent Living is a cross - disability rights civil society organization working in all EU countries that represents the disability movement for human rights and social inclusion based on solidarity, peer support, deinstitutionalisation, democracy, self-representation, cross disability and self-determination.

The recording of the webinar can be watched on youtube. The transcript of the webinar can be soon downloaded above.