Steven Allen

Steven is a social justice activist and was appointed Executive Director of the Validity Foundation in 2022, having previously served as Co-Executive Director (2018-2022), and originally joining the team in 2013. At Validity, Steven provides leadership to the organisation’s strategic litigation on behalf of persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in Europe and Africa, and he has led numerous human rights monitoring missions worldwide. He regularly provides legal advice and support to organisations of persons with disabilities internationally and leads Validity’s work with UN and other international mechanisms. Steven played in a key role in convening the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization, representing Validity as a founding member, advocating globally for deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities. Steven holds a law degree from the University of London and undertakes postgraduate research in legal institutions that deny autonomy of marginalised populations. His interest in access to justice comes from his experience of supporting his mother with a psychosocial disability who died whilst detained in a closed British psychiatric hospital. The litigation that followed established the presumption that deaths in mental health institutions must be investigated in the same way as other deaths in detention, triggering expanded inquests in compliance with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights