Today, we are launching a guide that helps persons with disabilities and their organisations guarantee that existing legislation on disability rights protects their rights.
The guide, “EDF’s Enforcement Toolkit”, presents a list of organisations that persons with disabilities can contact if their rights have been breached. These organisations can help them seek redress (such as compensation) or ensure that the situation is solved.
The guide states that “Disability-based discrimination still takes place and accessibility is not always guaranteed. When laws are not respected, they need to be enforced. By enforcement, we mean the process of making a Member State, a company, an organisation or an individual to obey a certain law. In other words, to make sure that they do what is required by law.”
It is divided into four sections:
- The first two sections focus on non-judicial enforcement – organisations and bodies that can uphold our rights but are not courts. These include, for example, the European Commission or equality bodies.
- The second part focus on mechanism that persons can use to support the judicial process, that is, when they need to go to court. These include, for example, pro-bono legal services or the European Small Claims Procedure.
The guide includes detailed instructions on when and how to use these mechanisms and provides examples of successful actions to enforce disability legislation.