Ukraine’s Legal Capacity Regime: Failing People with Disabilities

Résumé

Fight for Right Ukraine, in partnership with the New Society Institute, has released a comprehensive study examining Ukraine’s legal capacity regime and its impact on people with intellectual, psychosocial, cognitive, and other disabilities. Legal capacity—the legal recognition of a person’s right to make decisions and exercise rights—is a cornerstone of human rights and is protected under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Ukraine ratified in 2010. Despite this commitment, tens of thousands of adults in Ukraine remain under guardianship or subject to court-ordered restrictions that strip them of decision-making authority, often for decades. These arrangements, frequently described as “civil death,” leave individuals unable to make basic choices about their lives, with limited opportunities for review or restoration.

Using the Legal Capacity Inclusion Lens, the study analyzes how civil law, judicial practice, and institutional systems interact to restrict legal capacity in practice. It finds that Ukraine’s regime is still rooted in outdated, disability-based models that prioritize guardianship and substituted decision-making over supported decision-making, which is largely absent from law and practice. The research also identifies serious data gaps that obscure the true scale and duration of legal capacity deprivation. Importantly, the study situates reform within Ukraine’s broader goals of deinstitutionalization, social inclusion, and European integration, emphasizing that full recognition of legal capacity is essential to these efforts. Drawing on comparative international experience, it offers a roadmap for transitioning toward a system grounded in equality, autonomy, and support—framing legal capacity reform as a necessary step toward a modern, rights-based, and inclusive Ukraine.

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