Article 12 CRPD: Equal Recognition before the Law

The right to equal recognition before the law is concerned with legal personality – the ability to bear rights and duties under law, and legal capacity – whether and how one can exercise, claim or defend those rights, and the assumption of legal liability. Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is concerned with how legal systems themselves enable and disable people as legal actors. In the view of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD Committee’) and many of those involved in negotiating article 12, it introduces a new paradigm of ‘universal legal capacity’, that cannot be limited on grounds of disability or mental incapacity. The CRPD Committee maintains that this requires the abolition of all forms of substitute decision making. This interpretation of article 12 is contested in the literature, but for many involved in the disability movement, ending guardianship and other forms of substitute decision making is central to wider advocacy goals of ending institutionalisation, forced treatment, and loss of fundamental citizenship rights such as the ability to vote, marry and own property.