Making human rights meaningful for people with disabilities: advocacy, access to justice and equality before the law

In recent years there has been increasing recognition of the need for proactive measures, beyond anti-discrimination legislation, to ensure the substantive equality of people with disabilities. A state-operated advocacy system is one such measure, since it acts as a mechanism for enforcing rights and can also support people with disabilities in exercising their legal capacity. This article will argue that a right to an independent state-appointed advocate at domestic level is needed to realise and make meaningful the human rights to equality before the law and access to justice - focusing on the expression of these rights in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Therefore, I will argue that such advocacy systems should be regulated by states in accordance with these human rights norms, in order to ensure more effective protection of the human rights of people with disabilities at national level. Compliance with such human rights norms would also ensure that advocacy for people with disabilities would be given a higher priority within domestic legal systems, equal to that accorded to other rights of representation necessary to ensure access to justice and equality before the law, such as the right to legal representation.