Justice accessible to all people
Accessibility is a right of all citizens recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , which in article 13 states: "States parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities have access to justice on an equal basis with others, including through procedural and age-appropriate accommodations, to facilitate the effective performance of their functions as direct and indirect participants, including testifying as witnesses, in all judicial proceedings, including at the investigation and other preliminary stages."
This accessibility must be guaranteed in all areas and must seek to eliminate all barriers, both physical and in terms of understanding or sensory. For this reason, if we refer to and focus on the Spanish judicial system, several reforms have been carried out that should allow justice to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their difficulties. This accessibility, especially in terms of understanding, implies providing the judicial system with sufficient tools to be able to adapt judicial procedures to people with disabilities or mental health problems.
Understanding human rights in the context of mental health
Measures to guarantee access to justice for all people
In 2021, Mental Health Europe (MHE) produced a guide to good practice on the right to access to justice for people with psychosocial disabilities or mental health problems. The report, entitled Access to Justice for Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities & Mental Health. Problems: Reflection Paper and Promising Practices , aims to serve as a reference document for stakeholders and Member States to promote measures that ensure dignified, fair, adapted and non-violent treatment of people with mental health problems involved in judicial proceedings.
People with disabilities or mental health problems may have difficulty understanding all the steps of a judicial procedure, and this impairs their access to a fair, participatory trial adapted to their needs.
As stated in this report, access to justice must be an essential element in guaranteeing the full range of rights for all people. While this report is a very important advance, it is still rare for the resources already available to the judicial system to be used. Certainly, people with disabilities or mental health problems may have difficulty understanding all the steps of a judicial procedure , and this impairs their access to a fair, participatory trial adapted to their needs.
Based on this report, a strong call was made to member states to adapt their regulations and improve access to justice for people with disabilities or mental health problems. In this regard, Law 8/21 , reforming civil and procedural legislation to support people with disabilities in the practice of exercising their legal capacity, has amended other laws to make this access effective on equal terms, and has amended article 7 of the Civil Procedure Law (law regulating civil judicial procedure) in the following terms:
«Article 7 bis. Adjustments for people with disabilities.
- In processes involving persons with disabilities, the adaptations and adjustments necessary to ensure their participation in conditions of equality will be made. These adaptations and adjustments will be made, both at the request of any of the parties or the Public Prosecutor's Office, and ex officio by the Court itself, and in all procedural phases and actions in which it is necessary, including acts of communication. The adaptations may refer to communication, understanding and interaction with the environment.
- People with disabilities have the right to understand and be understood in any action that must be taken . To this end:
a) All communications with persons with disabilities, whether oral or written, shall be made in clear, simple and accessible language, in a manner that takes into account their personal characteristics and needs, using means such as easy reading. If necessary, the communication shall also be made to the person who supports the person with disabilities in the exercise of their legal capacity.
b) The disabled person will be provided with the necessary assistance or support so that he or she can make himself or herself understood , which will include interpretation in legally recognized sign languages and means of supporting oral communication for deaf, hearing-impaired and deaf-blind people.
c) The participation of an expert professional who, as a facilitator, carries out the necessary adaptation and adjustment tasks so that the person with a disability can understand and be understood will be allowed.
d) The person with a disability may be accompanied by a person of their choice from the first contact with the authorities and officials.
In the same terms, the Voluntary Jurisdiction Law, art.7, has also been modified, taking into account that this law regulates the request for support measures by the person with a disability.
Tools to adapt reading and comprehension
At the same time, the Spanish Ministry of Justice has also worked on developing tools available to judges and citizens. Although a very wide range of adapted and easy-to-read resolutions is available, they are still rarely used today.
As we have indicated, the laws establish the right of people with disabilities to understand all phases of the procedure and, therefore, to have all the resolutions of a judicial process adapted , taking into account their difficulties.
For this purpose, on the website of the Ministry of Justice you can find different models of claims and adapted sentences, which really represent a very important advance in understanding the resolutions issued in judicial proceedings.
We detail an example of the first two pages of a sentence adapted for easy reading, published on the website of the Spanish Ministry of Justice:
On this same website, we can also find other adapted documents , such as the birth certificate, marriage certificate and death certificate.
The laws establish the right of people with disabilities to understand all phases of the procedure and, therefore, to have all resolutions of a judicial process adapted, taking into account their difficulties.
We must bear in mind that adaptation not only includes writing, but also oral communication and the possibility that the person who has difficulties can be accompanied by a person chosen from the beginning of contact with the courts.
A long way to go
In Catalonia, for example, since February 2024, the Department of Justice has introduced the dictation of sentences and other resolutions in easy-to-read format for people with disabilities. To start the process, the person must request it through their lawyer, and, if the judge considers it appropriate, they can request the adaptation of the judicial resolution to easy-to-read format.
Certainly, judicial processes are very formal acts with complex and sometimes difficult to understand legal language . Services like this facilitate their understanding and thus promote the full inclusion and autonomy of people with disabilities in their relationship with the administration of justice.
Therefore, while it is true that there are several tools to adapt legal language and that the laws have been modified since 2021, it is necessary that both judges and lawyers and other people involved in the procedure have sufficient training to do so ; means are also needed to be able to carry out these measures in all courts and, above all, that the tools at their disposal are used naturally and without the need to make an express request. In this way, we will bring justice closer to people who may have difficulty understanding much of the procedure and facilitate their participation with all guarantees.
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