About the Institute
1. Introduction
Around the globe, persons with disabilities confront unfairness and discrimination in justice systems - from interactions with law enforcement, to reporting crimes, restrictions on serving as witnesses, appointing, and instructing one’s defence counsel, and lack of accommodations for participating in legal processes at every level. Law enforcement and justice systems continue to play a role in depriving people of their liberty based on disability through processes such as involuntary psychiatric commitment and other forms of forced institutionalization. People with disabilities are also over-represented in jails and prisons. Deep-seated assumptions about persons with disabilities’ capacity reinforce inequitable access to justice. These are rooted in discriminatory laws and policies denying personhood and participation, and are frequently compounded by systemic racism, classism, sexism and heteronormativity.
Two years ago, the Open Society Foundations (OSF) began developing a global Hub of activists from the disability and criminal justice fields involved in cutting-edge reform efforts in their respective regions. These include Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Pooling their expertise, the members of the Hub for Fair Access to Justice (the Hub) work to create new standards and tools to challenge discrimination and ensure justice systems function in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
2. About the Fair Access to Justice Institute
The Hub is excited to announce that in July 2022 it will be hosting its inaugural Fair Access to Justice Institute in Canterbury, United Kingdom. The Institute will bring together criminal justice and disability rights experts, and leading practitioners and advocates from around the world, including a cohort of 20 Institute Fellows to participate in an intensive programme of mutual learning and knowledge creation.
During the 5-day residential programme*, the Fellows, together with existing members of the Hub, will benefit from theoretical input and expert lectures, practical applications of learned skills and opportunities for knowledge sharing. Fellows will be paired with existing Hub members during and after the Institute, as a form of longer-term support in putting learning into action and developing ways to share relevant knowledge in wider and more targeted communities.
The work of the Hub is organized around three interrelated workstreams, namely:
• International standards and a new paradigm to conform to the CRPD
• Justice Intermediaries
• Reimagining community safety and policing.
* If COVID restrictions are still in place, we will make the necessary adjustments to online learning as needed or adopt a hybrid in-person/online. Candidates will not be excluded because of COVID-related travel restrictions.
3. Information on the Hub workstreams
The three workstreams listed above will be further explored during the Institute. There will be opportunities for discussion and for Fellows to share their own experiences and consider how they might apply learning in their own contexts. You are therefore encouraged to read the descriptions of each of these below before completing your application.
Work Stream One: International standards and a new paradigm to conform to the CRPD
This workstream has considered how capacity issues in the criminal justice system have a discriminatory impact on persons with disabilities and how the system must be changed to eliminate unequal treatment. To date, we have focused our efforts on key legal concepts of “competency to stand trial” and the “insanity defence.” Both concepts are capacity-based, both apply only to persons with disabilities, and both preclude equal access to justice. Indeed, for these and other reasons, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires that governments abolish them both.
Competency to stand trial – also called capacity to plead – and the insanity defence are complicated legal doctrines, based in long standing and entrenched jurisprudential theories. Consequently, through research, drafting of policy papers and symposia, we have sought to educate ourselves in the legal underlying theories and how they operate to deny equal access to justice to persons with disabilities. Our goal is to propose how to replace them with CRPD compliant systems. As part of that work, we are familiarizing ourselves with other theories of justice, especially restorative justice and transformative justice. We have considered whether and how these justice practices can be used to eliminate the discrimination that is deeply rooted in adversarial criminal justice systems.
Hub members have also been available to advocates, attorneys, and policy makers to assist in their consideration of capacity-related issues in criminal justice systems. We have assisted in the drafting of international documents on access to justice and have provided materials and legal cases to lawyers arguing cases in the courts of several nations.
Workstream Two: Justice intermediaries
The role of justice intermediaries is a relatively new one that is developing in many countries. The role is impartial and works, as required, with justice system personnel and persons with disabilities to ensure effective communication during legal proceedings. In some jurisdictions, a justice intermediary is referred to as a facilitator or communication assistant.
This workstream has set itself two goals for this work. The first to develop a ‘starter kit’ for any country or state that wishes to introduce the role of an intermediary to their local justice system, and the second to develop learning tools to help investigators, attorneys, judges, and justice intermediaries meet accessibility challenges that arise in the context of justice procedures.
A Justice Intermediary Starter Kit (JISK) has been developed, which will soon be available as a free-to-download starter pack, available in English, Spanish and Japanese. JISK provides a set of resources and essential information for establishing an intermediary service, references for further reading and examples of how the Justice Intermediary role has been introduced around the world. Using simulation-based tools, a training kit has also been developed comprising film clips that portray both accessible and inaccessible legal proceedings and the challenges persons with disabilities face.
Workstream Three: Reimagining community safety and policing
The Reimagining Community Safety & Policing Workstream (the Reimagining Workstream) is considering strategies and promising practices that reimagine current “justice” systems from the perspective of persons with disabilities, and that also reflect the CRPD principles. The primary aim of this work is to create a framework for global discussion about alternative community safety strategies, and to identify policy and conceptual barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in them on an equal footing with others. Foundational to the work is gathering insight and opinions from people with disabilities through accessible outreach tools such as plain language surveys, direct one on one informal interviews and listening sessions. Seeking direction from people with disabilities is critical to reimagining effective solutions as this inclusive process reveals key information that can direct future work.
4. How to apply to become a Fair Access to Justice Institute Fellow
If you believe you have what it takes to become one of the first Institute Fellows, we’d love to hear from you.
To fill in the web form, or upload an audio recording, you will need to have a Google/Gmail account. If you do not have a google account, please either use the PDF Form or email Jenny at application@fairjustice.net
There are five ways you can submit your application:
Complete your application online and upload your supporting document through this google form
Download our PDF Form, complete it, and email it with your CV/resume to application@fairjustice.net
Submit your application as an audio recording, following the questions on this page in order.
Submit your application as a video recording. To gain access to the portal to upload your recording email application@fairjustice.net. When recording your video, please follow the questions on this page in order.
If you want personalised support with your application, you may contact us to arrange this. Please email Jenny, at: application@fairjustice.net
If you would like to learn more about the Institute before submitting your application, please join one of our online information sessions. Each session will be for up to 60 minutes and will provide the opportunity to hear about the Institute, the work of the Hub, and to ask questions. Spanish and Chinese interpretation, and Closed Captioning in English, will be provided.
The dates and times for each session are:
• Tuesday, 16 November at 1pm London time
• Wednesday, 1 December at 1.30pm London time
To register to join one of these events, please complete the web form and we will send you a Zoom link.
All candidates will be contacted by 31 January 2022. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview. Interviews will be held between 2 and 14 February 2022.
Costs for travel, meals, and accommodation will be covered for successful applicants.
The closing date for applications is 31 December 2021.