Perspectives of more complete realization of rights from Article 12 of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Recognition of persons with disabilities as deserving of the same rights, i.e. equality before the law is clearly highlighted in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from 2006. In addition to this Convention, the European Court of Human Rights has stated in its decisions that even a more serious mental deficiency can not be the only reason for the deprivation of legal capacity. In some countries, this understanding has been approved and accepted for a long time, and significant steps have been taken, primarily in the sense of abolishing a complete deprivation of legal capacity and moving to a system of providing support in decision-making instead of providing substitute decision-makers. In the Republic of Serbia, laws passed more than two decades ago are still in force and still unchanged regarding questions of legal capacity, which in practice leads to complete deprivation of legal capacity as a dominant way of decision-making. Although the Preliminary Draft of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Family Law has been drawn up, according to which complete deprivation of legal capacity is replaced by "restriction of legal capacity", it seems that this change may not bring substantial changes. It is necessary to work on changing the political narrative and understanding first in order for the real changes to actually occur.