A/HRC/34/58 4. Choice and control 55. States must design support services and arrangements so that they enable direct choice and control by persons with disabilities. Existing services often do not comply with this standard. In many instances the decisions of users can be overridden by professionals and family members. States must guarantee to persons with disabilities the opportunity to plan and direct their own support: who provides it and how, and whether it is provided in disability-specific services or in services offered to the general public. The denial or restriction of legal capacity, a widespread human rights violation worldwide, has a direct impact on the possibility for persons with disabilities to exercise choice and control over the support they receive and contributes to the imposition of services that are contrary to their dignity and rights. 56. Individual funding is a suitable way to ensure choice and control by persons with disabilities. Personalized schemes allow persons with disabilities to hire support directly, either from formal service providers or informal carers, or a combination of both. In this way, persons with disabilities can decide who provides them support and the type and level of support they wish to receive, and thus are much more empowered to ensure that they will receive adequate support. The implementation of such schemes should not, however, result in States relinquishing their primary responsibility to ensure access to appropriate support for persons with disabilities. On the contrary, States have a significant role to play in its management and monitoring. V. Ensuring access to support for persons with disabilities A. General State obligations 1. Legal and policy frameworks 57. States must establish legal and policy frameworks that ensure that support services and arrangements, including assistive technologies, are available, accessible, adequate and affordable. Many national legal frameworks do not include support services at all, or only for the exercise of certain rights (e.g., inclusive education or mobility). Moreover, when legislation does consider these services, States often do not have the appropriate policies and programmes in place to ensure implementation. States should review existing legislation and policies on support to ensure that they are compatible with the requirements of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 58. States should also consider establishing a comprehensive system to coordinate the effective access to support of persons with disabilities. The system should be anchored in the human rights-based approach to disability; take into account equality between men and women and the rights of the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups; and cover all support needs across all sectors of society throughout one or more schemes, formal and informal. Such a system could bring coherence and coordination across programmes, actors and levels of government responsible for the provision of support. Within this system, States should take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures to protect persons with disabilities from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, including their gender-based aspects. States should also consider integrating as many assistance and support services as possible into their existing mainstream policies and programmes. Persons with disabilities and their representative organizations should participate in all decision-making processes concerning this system, including design, implementation and monitoring. 14