Legislation as a driver for change - a disruptive approach to CRPD's Article 13 (CRPD-COSP18).

Ensuring that disabled people can access their rights is fundamental to driving social development. While the SDGs and the World Social Summit have the stated aim of placing people at the centre of social development, this is impossible without ownership and empowerment. Furthermore, for disabled people, the path to this must be accessible - in line with the direction contained in Article 13 of the UNCRPD.

In conjunction with our international partners, Malta has developed a system which facilitates redress in respect of disability discrimination, developed principally by disabled people, for the benefit of disabled people and their allies. Concurrently, strong awareness in respect of both people's rights, and their paths to seeking justice, will complement this process.

This system will be presented by its custodian, Malta's disability equality body, the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD). An expert from the Validity Foundation will offer a critical analysis of this system in light of the UNCRPD. Other speakers will then delve into the critical requirements of Article 13-compliant systems, while reflecting on past shortcomings, and making recommendations.

National, regional and global approaches will be tackled by speakers from the European Disability Forum, The Leprosy Mission and CBM Global Disability Inclusion, and will include user testimony, while emphasising the critical role rights play in furthering the development agenda.

This event was created to analyse approaches to providing Access to Justice in Article 13 compliant ways to improve disabled people's access to justice. The event will begin with an overview of the current state of affairs with regards to access to justice within the European Union presented by Marine Uldry from the European Disability Forum. This will be followed by a presentation given by Rhoda Garland and Alistair DeGaetano explaining the approach Malta has taken in order to break down barriers to access to justice which will commence with a portrayal of how disability discrimination is handled by the national disability equality body and will be followed by an in-depth overview of the amendments which to the national legislation in order to empower disabled people to gain access to justice as provided for in the UNCRPD.

Steven Allen from the Validity Foundation will then highlight the importance of having a disability-inclusive justice system and compare the Maltese innovative approach to other national systems. This analysis will be followed by Dinesh Basnet from IDEA (Nepal) and Mathias Duck of The Leprosy Mission who will speak of the experiences and challenges of an advocate affected by leprosy engaging with allies and authorities in pushing forward change and the current situation on access to justice in the Global South. The final speaker Dr Elizabeth Lockwood of CBM Global Disability inclusion representative at the UN whowill speak about no-one being left behind in the quest for justice on the road to the World Social Summit.

Following the speakers there will be a time for closing remarks and reflections from the audience, after which the Chair will conclude.

Watch Legislation as a driver for change - a disruptive approach to CRPD's Article 13 (CRPD-COSP18)!