Social Structures
Author: Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate – Università degli Studi di Verona (Italy)
Persons with disabilities represent human diversity and their inherent dignity must be recognised. In legal terms, the protection of human dignity is linked to the recognition and respect of the right to legal capacity, which is established by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). According to this provision, persons with disabilities have the right to legally act on an equal basis with others. Even though they may need support and reasonable accommodations, disability cannot be used to justify the denial of the right of persons with disabilities to make their own choices concerning their lives. To this aim, supported (and not substituted) decision-making mechanisms must be provided to help them in decision-making processes.
Since international mobility of adults (including those with disabilities) is an increasing phenomenon in the contemporary globalized world, international human rights instruments acquire special relevance regarding the exercise of civil rights in transnational situations. In that connection private international law, which has been defined as ‘the body of conventions, model laws, national laws, legal guides, and other documents and instruments that regulate private relationships across national borders’, must be read in conjunction with international human rights norms. To this end, legal scholars (Franzina, 2012; Franzina, 2015; Franzina and Long, 2016, 106-177; Franzina, 2019; Long, 2013) who investigate the transnational protection of the rights of adults with disabilities speak of “integral approach” to identify the mutual influence of international human rights and private international law.
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