Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Legal Capacity Reform and Supported Decision-Making

The Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas Aguilar, submits the present report to the Human Rights Council pursuant to Council resolutions 26/20 and 35/6. It contains a description of the activities she carried out in 2017 and a thematic study on the right of persons with disabilities to equal recognition as a person before the law. In preparing the study, the Special Rapporteur analysed the responses to a questionnaire sent to Member States, national human rights institutions, agencies of the United Nations system, civil society organizations and persons with disabilities and their representative organizations. She received 40 responses. She also relied on information gathered during an expert meeting on supporting the autonomy and independence of older persons with disabilities, which took place in New York in October 2017.