A/HRC/34/58 systems to be able to cooperate more effectively with States, including through technical guidance, information and capacity-building. 7. Accountability and monitoring 73. States must monitor effectively the access of persons with disabilities to appropriate support. For that purpose, States should build, within their national legal and policy frameworks, clear accountability mechanisms, with indicators and benchmarks for measuring the accountability of State authorities. The governmental focal points and coordination mechanisms for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as required by its article 33 (1), should be considered as the mechanisms for overseeing implementation. To prevent the occurrence of all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse in the provision of support, States must ensure independent monitoring of all the facilities and programmes that provide services to persons with disabilities as well as the establishment of appropriate and effective safeguards. 74. Persons with disabilities should have access to effective judicial or other appropriate remedies when States fail to meet their obligation to ensure access. Similarly, States must guarantee that all persons with disabilities who have experienced any form of exploitation, violence or abuse in the context of support received have access to justice and effective remedies. These remedies should include adequate reparations, including restitution, compensation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, as appropriate. National human rights institutions and independent mechanisms to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the Convention should be mandated to carry out inquiries and investigations (art. 33 (2)) as well as provide assistance to persons with disabilities in accessing legal remedies. B. Obligations related to specific types of support 75. There is a diversity of forms of support services and arrangements for persons with disabilities. These include, but are not limited to, the different types of support measures described in the following paragraphs. While the classification is useful for identifying specific obligations and particularities, in practice most forms of support overlap in significant ways. 1. Decision-making 76. Some persons with disabilities may want support to make decisions, hence to exercise their legal capacity. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities explicitly recognizes that States have an obligation to provide persons with disabilities with access to support in the exercise of their legal capacity (art. 12 (3)). States must replace regimes of substitute decision-making with regimes of supported decision-making that respect the rights, will and preferences of persons with disabilities, such as support agreements, peer support groups, self-advocacy support and advance directives, among others. In its general comment No. 1 (2014) on equal recognition before the law, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides guidance on how to ensure access to support in decision-making. 77. Since the adoption of the Convention, it is encouraging to note that many countries, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Czechia and Ireland, have revised their legal frameworks to recognize the right of persons with disabilities to access support to exercise legal capacity. In order to uphold a real paradigm shift, the implementation of supported decision-making systems must be accompanied by the abolishment of all substitute decision-making regimes. 18

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents