Children with learning disabilities and their participation in judicial procedures – what can disability advocacy offer?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on the paper titled “The Zone of Parental Control, The ‘Gilded Cage’ and The Deprivation of a Child’s Liberty: Getting Around Article 5”. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses the original article as a jumping off point to assess what aids advocacy organisations and human rights instruments can give to children with learning disabilities who enter legal procedures. Findings – Existing human rights laws such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provide innovative principles to reviewing existing policies, but little practical guidance is given to real implementation. Disability advocacy is ambiguous towards the question of representation of children with learning disabilities. Originality/value – Literature on self-advocacy and especially on the self-advocacy and self-representation of children with learning disabilities is very limited. Access to justice for children with learning disabilities is similarly under-researched and is rarely addressed in disability advocacy.