A/HRC/37/56 practices lead to the loss of control of their lives and expose older persons with disabilities to high levels of violence, abuse and neglect. 19. For too long, the international human rights system did not pay attention to those multiple violations of the right to legal capacity of persons with disabilities. In fact, there has been a significant underuse of the international legal framework to advance this and other human rights for persons with disabilities (see A/70/297, para. 18). 20. In that context, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities introduces a paradigm shift in relation to the legal capacity of persons with disabilities. The Convention moves away from medical and paternalistic approaches to disability towards a human rights-based approach and considers persons with disabilities as rights holders, rather than as mere receivers of protection, rehabilitation or welfare. In the Convention the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of human rights are recalled by stressing that persons with disabilities should fully enjoy all their rights without any kind of discrimination. While in the text of the Convention the subsistence of structures and practices that are contrary to the human rights of persons with disabilities is questioned, the importance of positive measures to ensure the effective implementation of the Convention is also stressed. 21. In the Convention a universalist understanding of the right to legal capacity is upheld and it states that all persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others. Moreover, the role of support in the actual implementation of the right to legal capacity is emphasized, underlining the diversity and interdependence of human experiences. Accordingly, persons with disabilities should have access to appropriate support to exercise their legal capacity and not be restricted in its enjoyment. The paradigm of the Convention enshrines the universal recognition of legal capacity and the provision of the support needed to exercise it. In doing so, it challenges traditional discriminatory approaches and acknowledges the structural barriers to exercising legal capacity experienced by persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the Convention has expanded the understanding of the right to equal recognition before the law in the international human rights system for persons with disabilities and other groups. 5 On that account, the obligations arising from other international human rights treaties should be complemented by the provisions of the Convention and interpreted in the light of it. 22. The paradigm shift of the Convention in relation to legal capacity has already had an important impact on the work of the United Nations and of regional organizations. Different United Nations treaty bodies, special procedures and agencies are progressively adjusting their standards to the Convention. 6 In the inter-American human rights system, the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities adopted a general comment calling for the Inter-American Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities to be interpreted in line with article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.7 The draft protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the rights of persons with disabilities in Africa, adopted in 2016, also recognizes the right to legal capacity of all persons with disabilities. 5 6 7 6 For example, in the Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons the support paradigm of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in relation to the right to equal recognition before the law is upheld. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has also referred to the need to ensure access to supported decision-making arrangements to ensure the right of children to express their views (see general comment No. 20 (2016) on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, paras. 22 and 32). See, for example, E/C.12/MDA/CO/2, para. 24, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 35 (2017) on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19, para. 29; CEDAW/C/CZE/CO/6, para. 41; CEDAW/C/MDA/CO/4-5, para. 38; CEDAW/C/FIN/CO/7, para. 29; CEDAW/C/IND/CO/4-5, para. 37; A/HRC/10/48, paras. 43–47; and A/HRC/34/32, paras. 25–28. See also WHO QualityRights guidance and training tools, available from www.who.int/mental_health/policy/quality_rights/en/. See OEA/ Ser.L/XXIV.3.1 CEDDIS/doc.12 (I-E/11).