Tillgång till rättssystemet för barn med funktionsnedsättning

Sammanfattning: Children with disabilities are at much greater risk than other children of being exposed to violence and sexual abuse. Additionally, they are not considered credible witnesses to their experiences and are at risk of not being entrusted to the legal system. The following paper examines the right to access to justice for children with disabilities and the obligation of Sweden, as a Contracting State, to ensure this access based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The paper also examines how the Swedish judicial system can be adapted to the needs of children with disabilities when exposed to crime and how it lives up to the requirements set by the CRPD. The right to access to justice granted by CRPD must be read in conjunction with the general obligations in the Convention. This provides that children with disabilities have the right to access to justice on an equal basis with other children without discrimination. The right covers all parts of the legal process. States Parties shall take measures to enable children with disabilities to exercise their right to be heard and their views to be considered. In the legal process, States Parties shall ensure access to justice by providing procedural and age-appropriate accommodations and promoting appropriate training for all legal professionals. CRPD also underline the need to combat stereotypes, prejudice, and harmful practices and the States Parties undertake to adopt immediate, effective, and appropriate measures for this caus. That is also a part of ensuring access to justice. Sweden has certain accommodations in the criminal process when crimes against children are investigated. Among other things, it is specially trained police and prosecutors who lead interrogations and preliminary investigations, children are entitled to free legal support, interrogations are held at specially designated locations adapted for children (Barnahus) and children do not have to participate in the main hearing if they do not want to. Yet, police officers, prosecutors, counsel for an injured party, and judges state that they have a lack of knowledge about how different disabilities affect children in criminal proceedings, what accommodations there are and what rights children with disabilities have. If knowledge of and how measures and accommodations are to be made lacks, it does not matter that the measures exist. To live up to the requirements of the CRPD, Sweden is therefore required to further promote education for professionals in line with ensuring access to the legal system. Awareness-raising measures are also needed to combat prejudices, stigmas, and harmful practices against children with disabilities and their abilities.