SINGAPORE – About 400 people from the legal, medical and social services circles came together in March at the State Courts for the inaugural Access to Justice symposium.
It was there that Minister for Law Edwin Tong announced
that his ministry would be committed to a multi-agency task force
to support individuals with invisible disabilities within the justice system, including those with mental health conditions and special needs.
Behind this milestone is one woman: veteran lawyer Ms Peggy Yee, 61, who has advocated for people with invisible disabilities for more than two decades.
Ms Yee, who runs her own law firm PY Legal, chaired the symposium’s organising committee and spent a year persuading government agencies and tapping her networks to bring it to life. The event was hosted by legal aid charity Pro Bono SG.
For Ms Yee, whose legal career spans 38 years, the effort was personal: a long-held vision of a more inclusive society for people with mental health conditions, autism, intellectual disabilities and other invisible needs.
“When you recognise that there’s a need, and no one is doing something, I feel personally responsible,” Ms Yee told The Straits Times in a September interview at her Clarke Quay office.
Seated at a desk with a portrait of a mother and child painted by an artist with autism, the spirited woman brims with enthusiasm as she spoke about her passion for this group.
In her speech at the symposium in March, she had said: “No one wears a sign to say he has mental health issues or is autistic.”
Ms Yee, who raised the idea of the task force at the symposium, added: “How do (people with invisible disabilities) advocate for themselves when they struggle to process information? How do they exercise their rights when they are unable to articulate themselves?”
Ms Yee often takes on these individuals’ criminal and civil cases pro bono and has represented those charged with offences, including unlawful stalking and theft.
