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EDF Human Rights Report 2024 - Legal capacity: Personal choice and control 

EDF Human Rights Report 2024 - Legal capacity: Personal choice and control 

Legal capacity is a fundamental right that enables individuals to make decisions and control their lives. It is protected by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by the EU and its Member States.  

Its deprivation infringes on a wide array of inalienable human rights, including freedom from torture, exploitation, and abuse. It also strips persons with disabilities of their rights to justice, liberty, independent living, privacy, and full participation in society. This encompasses access to information, healthcare, employment, relationships, and political engagement, such as voting or holding office. 

Our Human Rights Report, released in 2024, found that no EU Member State fully complies with article 12 of the CRPD, which guarantees legal capacity through equal recognition before the law. All of them still provide for ways to deprive a person with a disability of their legal capacity, either completely or partly:  

  • 12 EU countries allow full deprivation of legal capacity. 
  • 9 EU countries permit partial removal of legal capacity.
  • 6 EU countries have nearly abolished any type of deprivation of legal capacity but still allow exceptions.
Map of the Legal Capacity Regimes in the EU. In red the countries with full guardianship authorized: 1 Bulgaria 2. Croatia 3. Cyprus 4. Denmark 5. Estonia 6. France 7. Italy 8. Greece 9. Hungary 10. Luxembourg 11. Netherlands 12. Poland In purple the countries with partial guardianship: 13. Belgium 14. Finland 15. Latvia 16. Lithuania 17. Malta 18. Romania 19. Slovakia 20. Slovenia 21. Sweden In green the countries with almost fully abolished: 22. Austria 23. Czechia 24. Germany 25. Ireland 26. Portugal 27. Spain
Map: Legal Capacity Regimes in the EU

The report also found that the European Union and the Council of Europe, including its European Court of Human Rights, still fail to adopt measures to promote and protect the legal capacity, and more broadly, the autonomy and right to choose, of persons with disabilities. 

Much remains to be done to ensure the right to legal capacity for all! 

We invite you to read our Human Rights Report, available in both Easy-to-Read and accessible formats, which aims to: 

  1. Clarify the right to legal capacity and the key obligations under the CRPD. 
  2. Provide up-to-date information on legal capacity across EU Member States, including current laws, new measures, and policies supporting persons with disabilities in exercising their legal capacity. 
  3. Expose how the deprivation of legal capacity is connected to coercion and control over persons with disabilities. 
  4. Highlight promising practices in supported decision-making, the collection of free and informed consent, and voluntary support in mental health care. 
  5. Offer recommendations for the Council of Europe, the European Union, and Member States

Download the complete Human Rights Report below

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