Prominent speakers address access to justice for people with disabilities

disability justice

One of the invited speakers was María Soledad Cisternas, current UN special envoy on Accessibility and Disability.

With the purpose of contributing to the construction of an inclusive management that allows people with disabilities to access justice on equal terms with the rest of the population, the University of La Serena, through the Project Management Team Inclusivos, and the National Disability Service (SENADIS), held the First Regional Seminar “Access to justice for people with disabilities: barriers and challenges in Chile.”

disability justice2The activity, held in the MOP Auditorium, was attended by regional and university authorities; parliamentarians; representatives of SENADIS, the Army and the Carabineros; officials of the justice systems of the region (Public Criminal Defender, Local Police, Letters and Family courts) and of various municipalities (Community Development areas); students of related careers and people with disabilities from Río Hurtado, Monte Patria, Vicuña, Combarbalá, La Higuera, Salamanca, Ovalle and La Serena.

The Director of Human Resources of the ULS, Dr. Héctor Bugueño, representing the Rector of the state campus, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, valued the organization of this type of activities and highlighted the work that the institution has developed in terms of inclusion. Furthermore, he specified that “inclusion is an unfinished objective and process; However, we have some convictions: inclusion and quality are inseparable dimensions; we understand education based on diversity; Human development does not depend only on the subject, the support and facilities of the context are crucial; The barriers are located inside and outside the educational systems; Inclusion is not in tune with competition, inclusion fits perfectly with collaboration.”

disability justice3At the event, the Minister of the Illustrious Court of Appeals of La Serena, Vicente Hormazábal, presented with "Current legislative scenario in Chile on access to justice for people with disabilities under the Human Rights approach"; the Director of the course of Law of the University of La Serena, Germán Solís, who presented “Incompatible and irrecoverable health, regarding some failures”; the lawyer and member of the United Nations Committee in charge of preparing the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Leonor Cifuentes, whose presentation was called “Legal capacity of people with disabilities, pending tasks in Chile”; the lawyer and Graduate in Legal and Social Sciences from the Universidad Católica del Norte, Alejandro Robledo, with "Inclusion and difference: Analysis comparative (Chile and Colombia) and philosophical foundations in the perspective of human rights”, and the UN special envoy on Accessibility and Disability and National Human Rights Award, María Soledad Cisternas, who presented “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations: New model for the XXI, Access to Justice and International Monitoring.

disability justice4The prominent Chilean lawyer María Soledad Cisternas, who served as president of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations (2003-2006), was categorical in pointing out that "it is imperative that the right of people with disabilities be made effective. disability, to have the reasonable adjustments they require to participate on equal terms in legal processes, whatever the nature of this participation." She also made reference to a series of national and international legal bodies on the "full right to legal capacity, that is, to exercise all citizen rights in a personal and non-transferable manner."

Finally, the coordinator of the Inclusive Project Management Team of the house of higher education, Karla Rivera, expressed that “this Seminar was a learning instance that allowed not only to learn about the current legislative status in Chile, regarding access to justice of people with disabilities, but also what challenges face the professionals in charge of judicial processes, to ensure that all people have access to justice on equal terms.”

The First Regional Seminar “Access to justice for people with disabilities: barriers and challenges in Chile” was supported by the ULS Accreditation Office.