Join IRIS on August 10th at 6pm EDT to announce the book launch of Legal Capacity, Disability and Human Rights! This international collection of essays on the right to legal capacity was co-edited by Dr. Nicolás Espejo Yaksic and our very own Dr. Michael Bach. Hosted by the Human Rights Division, today it will be launched by the Supreme Court of Mexico. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided and an online stream will be available here.
Dr. Michael Bach has over 30 years of research and development experience in Canada, and internationally on advancing inclusion and human rights of persons with intellectual and other disabilities. His research and publications cover disability theory, policy, and practice. His particular focus is the legal capacity of people with intellectual disabilities. He holds a PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
Nicolás is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Constitutional Studies of the Supreme Court of Mexico; Guest Lecturer in Law and Member of the Editorial Board of the Leiden Children’s Rights Observatory (University of Leiden); Corresponding Member of the Cambridge Family Law Centre (University of Cambridge); Visiting Fellow (2019-2021) at Exeter College (University of Oxford )and President of the International Network on Constitutional Family Law (INCFL). Dr. Espejo Yaksic has been Representative in Chile for the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL); Director of the Centre for Human Rights at Diego Portales University in Santiago de Chile and Director of the International Network of Public Interest and Human Rights Legal Clinics.
Nicolás has been a permanent advisor to the United Nations in the field of children’s rights. He has supported UNICEF in Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Perú and México. Since 2015, he has closely worked with the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence Against Children (SRSG-VAC), in the city of New York. Dr. Espejo Yaksic has also worked closely with civil society´s organisations from Latin America, judiciary schools and regional organisations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Dr. Espejo Yaksic has extensively researched and published about the relationship between children’s rights and family relationships; the specialization and prevention of violence and access to justice for children and adolescents, migration and access to justice, mental disability and law, social rights, legal theory and comparative constitutional practices, particularly in the adjudication of children’s rights.