IMPLEMENTATION UNDER NATIONAL LAW Recommendations: 2.4. PROCEDURAL RIGHTS • Develop mechanisms to enable early recognition of intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities by judges, prosecutors, legal aid, and others by setting up checklists and guidance at all stages of the criminal proceedings, including training opportunities for all actors involved. This includes ensuring that all professionals and actors involved are educated and trained to properly apply the UNCRPD standards. 2.4.1. ADEQUATE ACCOMMODATIONS IN ORDINARY PROCEEDINGS • Establish a multidisciplinary approach in assessments of intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities. The assessment should move beyond the medical examination and instead focus on individual needs as opposed to the disability or impairment that could influence the question of criminal responsibility. This will prevent any kind of stigmatisation because the individual assessment will look at social factors, environmenwt, and other factors. Besides psychiatrists and psychologists, this multidisciplinary team should also include, for example, a social worker, who has a paramount role in making a thorough social study about the person and their life situation. • Provide clear and comprehensive quality standards for the assessment of the disability in order to ensure accuracy, transparency, and uniformity of the assessment. This should include clear guidelines concerning the examination of the person concerned as well as guidance on the written expert opinions. This will enable the judiciary to have a better understanding of the basis of the assessment. • Develop review mechanisms to assess the quality of the work of expert witnesses and their independence. This could also be accompanied by mandatory educational measures and seminars on new developments and quality standards. • Ensure free and informed consent by the persons concerned for examinations by expert witnesses. • Ensure that persons concerned have a say in the selection of expert witnesses. • Ensure the right for the legal representation to be present during the meeting with the expert. • Ensure the obligation to record the conversation between the expert and the person concerned. 48 Persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities who are accused or suspected of crimes are in a situation of particular vulnerability. As was already laid out above, there are various standards that should ensure that their procedural rights are safeguarded. However, the research revealed that none of the partner countries have implemented the Recommendation 2013.161 The practice in the partner countries shows that persons in situations of vulnerability, including persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities, often do not have any procedural accommodations to support them in the complexities of criminal proceedings. The provision of adequate accommodations and support measures depend on the perception/ designation of a defendant as being in a situation of vulnerability; however, even in cases where a disability is detected, the ordinary proceedings usually do not foresee possibilities to provide support, such as mandatory representation, presence of a person of trust or the availability of easy to read documents (e.g., letter of rights) or other forms of support. Research in Lithuania revealed that the national legislation does not include any kind of reference to “vulnerable person”. In Italy too, it was pointed out that there is a lack of attention towards persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities and particularly the unavailability of adequate support during the proceedings. Even in cases where difficulties are obvious, no measures are reasonably adapted.162 As a means of procedural accommodation, the Austrian Criminal Code of Procedure provides vulnerable persons, including persons with a “mental impairment or another comparable condition preventing with the possibility of legal aid.163 Not only can the person concerned request a legal aid lawyer in case of intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities, but the judge should, if they identify a vulnerability, also request a legal aid lawyer. Nonetheless, experts have pointed out that ordinary proceedings do not foresee any provisions that would provide persons concerned with additional procedural accommodations.