The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) fell into contradiction in a single session when deciding on the consultation of people with disabilities. Yesterday, the plenary session invalidated provisions of a Chiapas law for failing to comply with that requirement, but kept the regulations of Morelos and Durango in force despite the same omission, because a block of four ministers opposed it.
Five members of the highest court supported Yasmín Esquivel Mossa's project to invalidate a provision of the Durango Education Law that allows students to provide their social service as educational assistants or “shadow teachers” of students with disabilities.
"The consultation is necessary, we cannot consider it as a great advance that social service providers are included... Nor do I consider that violating the Convention (on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) has no consequences, it does have serious consequences, especially for people with disabilities... They are the ones who have to determine whether this norm meets expectations," defended Esquivel Mossa.
The project was rejected after failing to reach a qualified majority, after the president of the Court, Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, voted against; Lenia Batres Guadarrama, Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra and María Estela Ríos González. Although three of them recognized the obligation to consult, they considered that invalidating the rule would be less beneficial for people with disabilities.
Herrerías acknowledged that “it would be ideal for there to be consultation… but if the rule is invalidated, then these people will not have that support”; while Aguilar maintained that “perhaps it is not the perfect standard because it does not have consultation, but it does imply progress.”
Loretta Ortiz Ahlf, who the day before in another discussion showed the cochlear implant that she uses due to her hearing disability, criticized that position: "Once again we are making the same mistake. Sorry, substituting ourselves in the will of those who must be consulted."
Esquivel tried to withdraw his project to prevent the matter from being filed and allow analysis of possible violations of other rights, but the same block opposed it.
With the same vote, the plenary session rejected Giovanni Figueroa Mejía's project to completely invalidate the Law for the Care and Protection of People with Autism Spectrum Conditions in the State of Morelos, also approved without prior consultation.
In contrast, also yesterday, the Court invalidated provisions of the Chiapas Advance Directive Law for the same omission. Esquivel's project maintained that it is up to people with disabilities themselves to determine whether the measures that affect them are appropriate and accessible.
The discussion takes two days and almost five hours. During the debates, Batres Guadarrama has remained silent, despite the fact that last year he proposed abandoning the criterion of automatic invalidation due to lack of consultation, an initiative that triggered the public hearing in the Court in which 89 people with disabilities and experts participated.
