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Article 9 : Equal Recognition As A Person Before the Law

IDC on articles 9 and 10

If Disabled Peoples Organizations have no say in the decision-making about a convention to protect and defend our rights, that convention will be fatally flawed. We see the results in the discussion and amended text for articles 9 and 10.

Article 9:

Any form of substituted decision-making – guardianship, appointment of a personal representative, or determination of legal incapacity – excludes people with disabilities from rights that non-disabled men and women take for granted.

• We reject paragraph 2b of article 9 in its entirety and call for re-drafting of paragraph 2 and 2a to guarantee to people with disabilities a capacity to act identical to that of other persons and to clarify that the limitation “to the extent possible” refers only to obligations that are subject to progressive realization.

Article 10:

Any formulation that allows disability to be considered as a factor in the deprivation of liberty – “solely,” “exclusively” or “existence of a disability” – discriminates against people with disabilities.

• We reject the redraft of paragraph 1b and call for a return to the Working Group text for that paragraph.