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Inequalities before the Law Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities: Indonesia. Nicola Colbran Director, Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice.
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Inequalities before the LawAccess to Justice for Persons with Disabilities: Indonesia Nicola Colbran Director, Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice
Little progress has been made towards ensuring equality before the law and access to justice for persons with disabilities in Indonesia – Why?
Attitudes to Disability Influence Laws • Disability = identical to sickness or weakness • A person with a disability = person without capability who will only burden those around them • PwDs = objects of laws, not subjects with legal rights
Convention on Rights of Persons w/ Disabilities • Article 12: Equal recognition before the law • People before the law who have the right to make own legal decisions Violations include: - interdiction laws: declaration of incapacity, and attribution ofto act on persons behalf to another person
Convention on Rights of Persons w/ Disabilities • Article 12: Equal recognition before the law Violations include: • preventing legal acts on an equal basis with others eg. marriage law: permits polygamy for wife’s disability or divorce for spouse’s disability • failing to support participation in legal proceedingseg. No witness statements from those with hearing or speech impairments; inaccessible court buildings.
Convention on Rights of Persons w/ Disabilities Article 13: Access to justice Can PwDs access an enforceable remedy? No, because: • Laws cannot be implemented: no implementing regulations or no remedies can be sought for breach • Do not set out who is responsible, where & to whom a complaint can be made or sanctions for breach • Too general, or only partly regulate the subject matter • Where there is protection for rights of PwDs, it is often not implemented or enforced
Approach to Disability: Laws and Policy • Indonesia ratified DisCo on 18 October 2011 • disability = human rights issue • disability = consequence of interaction with an environment that does not accommodate that individual’s differences and limits or impedes the individual’s participation in society
Laws • 1945 Constitution • non-discrimination • equality before the law • right to equal treatment before the law • These protections need to be translated into law, in accordance with the recently ratified Convention
Going forward - AIPJ • Supreme Court Legal Aid Circular Letter now includes a specific reference to PwDs • Code of Conduct for Judges prohibits unfair treatment by judges on the basis of physical or mental capacity • AHRC-Komnas Perempuan • Ombudsman • Information and complaints through internet • Legal aid/paralegal – NGO swaps • Disability specialisation training for lawyers in exchange for legally mandated pro-bono work