The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the monitoring body (and the body that hears complaints) for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). One of the most important provisions of the CRPD (to me, and probably to readers of this blog as well) is Article 12 – the right to equal recognition before the law. The drafting of Article 12 was said to be among the most controversial of all the Articles of the CRPD, and it has posed some of the greatest problems for ratification by states. The core issues are whether or not states can use what the Committee calls ‘substituted decision making’ mechanisms, and what 'supported decision making' regimes might look like.
In their most recent session, the Committee published a draft General Comment on Article 12, which aims to throw light on the Committee’s position regarding equal recognition before the law and legal capacity. It is a very important document, and the Committee are inviting comments on it before a final version is adopted, to be submitted before the end of January 2014.
