For the first time, the 2022 edition of the EU Justice Scoreboard includes data on accessibility to justice for persons with disabilities. The European Commission describes the Justice Scoreboard as “an established annual overview providing comparative data on the efficiency, quality and independence of justice systems in the Member States.” Access to justice for persons with disabilities is related to the efficiency and quality metrics in particular. 

The 2022 Justice Scoreboard indicates that all Member States have “at least some” arrangements in place for those with disabilities. Advanced accommodations like Braille, sign-language, and ‘Easy to Read’ are available in a majority of the Member States. The Scoreboard also reveals that Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, and Austria provide the greatest amount of specific arrangements in place for persons with disabilities—while Greece, France, Italy, and Romania provide the least. The survey also found that “Persons with disabilities can be listened to in person and express their will” in 21 of the 28 Member States. 

“Specifically in recent years, the EU Justice Scoreboard and its information on judicial independence played an increasingly important role with the attention focussing on the rule of law across the European Union. The data presented in the Scoreboard enriches our understanding of the shortcomings and challenges at the national level, but equally so, it informs us of where there are positive trends and good practices that others can follow”, wrote the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, in the foreword of the 2022 Scoreboard

The 2022 Justice Scoreboard was published on May 19 by the European Commission and it is the 10th edition. It is comprised of quantitative data collected in an annual study conducted by the Council of Europe’s Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ). 

Signed by Anthony Ramazani, Millennium Partners intern

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