Disabling legal barriers

In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash with laws that promulgate rather than penalise prejudice. This article is a reflection on 15 years of human rights litigation and advocacy focused on improving the lives of people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe. The article provides two examples of case-work— Shtukaturov and Stanev —which have had a wider impact than just the lives of the individual applicants and illustrates how creative lawyering can contribute to advancing social justice. The article offers a personal reflection about what it means to work alongside activists striving to give voice to people whom the law has rendered invalid. Like many other marginalised people, children and adults with labels of mental health issues or disabilities face abuse in everyday life, partly as a result of discrimination embedded in law. Normalisation of discrimination nudges the public to welcome segregation and ill-treatment rather than accept difference and celebrate diversity.