Ketevan Khomeriki

Thesis Title: Exploring the impact of Mental Health Legal Frameworks on Lived Experiences of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities in Georgia

My research examines how mental health legal frameworks in Georgia shape the lived experiences, freedoms, and opportunities of persons with psychosocial disabilities. Despite Georgia’s commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and other international treaties, implementation remains uneven, with systemic barriers such as coercion, stigma, and institutionalisation continuing to constrain inclusion and agency.

I apply an interdisciplinary framework that combines international human rights law with the capabilities approach. While human rights norms provide essential standards of dignity, equality, and autonomy, they often remain aspirational in practice. The capabilities approach addresses this gap by evaluating whether people are able to realise substantive freedoms and live lives they have reason to value.

Drawing on qualitative methods, I conduct semi-structured interviews with persons with psychosocial disabilities and focus groups with family members. I employ critical discourse analysis to explore how law, policy, and dominant narratives influence the development of key capabilities such as bodily integrity, practical reason, affiliation, and control over one’s environment.

By integrating legal analysis with empirical accounts, my research illuminates how legal frameworks interact with structural and cultural barriers in Georgia. It contributes to socio-legal scholarship on disability and mental health by offering a nuanced understanding of the relationship between rights, capabilities, and lived experience, and by highlighting how global frameworks are mediated within local contexts.

Biography:

I am a PhD student in Law at the University of Birmingham, specialising in disability rights. I am also a lawyer and disability rights advocate with an experience in human rights research, litigation, and policy reform. I hold master’s degrees in International Human Rights Law (University of Leeds) and International Law and Human Rights (University of Tartu), as well as an MA in Social Research from the University of Birmingham.

Since 2014, I have worked with national (Coalition for Independent Living) and local (Changes of Equal Rights) disability organisations in Georgia as Chief Human Rights Lawyer, where I led a team of lawyers and activists in strategic litigation on disability-based discrimination and legal capacity. I also coordinated the drafting of Georgia’s alternative report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with 23 disability organisations.

As a consultant, I have contributed to projects with UNDP, Equality Now (UK), UNFPA, the Public Ombudsman of Georgia, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Interior. My work has included drafting guidelines on informed consent for persons with disabilities in medical facilities, preparing guidance on reasonable accommodation in the workplace, revising health-related laws to align with international bioethics and disability standards, supporting the Ministry of Interior in developing its disability strategy and action plan, and evaluating educational materials for compliance with human rights norms. I have also served as a visiting lecturer in Disability Rights Law at the Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University (Georgia) and trained over 500 practising advocates with USAID and EU support.

I have received awards including the ESRC Doctoral Training Studentship, the Caroline Gooding Prize for contributions to disability law, and the Open Society Foundations Global Disability Rights Scholarship.

Publications:

Ketevan Khomeriki. The Right of Persons with Disabilities to Work and Employment [research report]. Tbilisi: Public Defender’s Office, 23 September 2022. Available in Georgian: https://ombudsman.ge/geo/190308061623angarishebi/shezghuduli

Memberships:

Women's Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG Georgia) - Board Member;

The Socio-Legal Studies Association (UK) - Member;

Society of Legal Scholars: The SLS (UK) - Member

Socio-Legal Studies,

University of Birmingham

2023 Cohort

Email:

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Supervisory Team:

Professor Rosie Harding

Professor Natasa Mavronicola