Marite Fernández and disability rights advocates demonstrate before the Mexican Senate demanding the right to full legal capacity, Mexico City, Mexico, 2007.Â
© 2007 Carlos RĂos-Espinosa
Human Rights Watch’s Disability Rights Associate Director Carlos RĂos Espinosa speaks with one of the coalition’s leaders, whom he considers a top authority on Mexico’s legal capacity reform movement, a source of personal inspiration, and a friend, MarĂa Teresa Fernández (affectionately known as Marite), about her passion for this work, the impact of the reform bill, and the road ahead for disability rights in Mexico.
What was it like watching Congress pass the legal capacity reform?
The entire Deciding Is My Right coalition was watching the Mexican Congress channel on TV to see what was happening. We didn’t want to miss a second of the discussions. And when the unanimous decision was reached, we were moved to tears and could hardly believe it. It was all very moving, a very emotional moment.
How will this reform change the lives of people with disabilities and older persons in Mexico?  Â
We hope and expect it will change lives for the better, by empowering people with disabilities and older persons to make decisions by themselves, with support if they so choose. Until now, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities were deemed incapable of deciding the most basic things, like where to live or with whom. So, many of them were put under legal guardianship, meaning that a third party could decide everything for them, even around health treatment.
In the past, people with disabilities and older people whose rights were violated and who were exploited because of legal guardianship could not even participate in the legal proceeding that declared them legally incapable. And their children or relatives would sometimes take advantage of this, abusively using their assets and constraining their decisions.
This bill eliminates guardianship altogether and instead orders the creation of a model of supported decision-making, by which someone could appoint a third person to facilitate the exercise their legal capacity by providing support for communicating, understanding legal acts and their consequences, and expressing their will. Now, hopefully, people can truly be masters of their own lives.
Legal capacity is a threshold right that enables the exercise of many other rights, such as the right to health. Of course, there is also the impact on institutionalization. Until now, shelter directors would often act as guardians for people who were institutionalized and decide what treatment they should receive, locking them up and imposing coercive treatments on them. Now, everything requires the informed consent of the person concerned.
Finally, in terms of political rights, legal capacity is essential for people with disabilities to represent themselves within political parties, participate in such parties, vote, and be elected as representatives.
What is next for implementing the legal capacity reform?
The next steps involve important actions by all civil society actors and the three branches of government.
Firstly, federal and state congresses should pass amendments and recognize the legal capacity of everyone 18 years or over, aligning these amendments with the National Civil and Family Procedure Code. We already have an initiative before Mexico City’s Congress.
Judges need to familiarize themselves with the reform, including through training.
And the executive branch should adopt public policies, in particular concerning support systems and their regulations. It should also create a public entity that provides guidelines to establish supported decision-making services for people who do not have the financial means to avail themselves of such supports.
Training for people with disabilities and their families is also required. Many struggle to understand what this reform means, its implications, how to claim ownership of these implications and how to promote and defend their rights. Families will need training from civil society, from us, so their fears in relation to supported decision making can be explored and clarified, and so they no longer fear that their children will be left unprotected when guardianship ends. And that’s just one of many aspects.
Then, society in general must work to materialize this cultural change, to open up to diversity and, in particular, to accept disability. More broadly, it’s about becoming an increasingly egalitarian and inclusive society.
At the international level, major organizations, like the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, should keep promoting the issue and, through their various agencies, lift up and support as much as possible the organizations working on providing training.
I think everyone has work to do regarding this reform. Regarding the rights of people with disabilities in Mexico, I believe that the stru
© 2007 Carlos RĂos-Espinosa
Human Rights Watch’s Disability Rights Associate Director Carlos RĂos Espinosa speaks with one of the coalition’s leaders, whom he considers a top authority on Mexico’s legal capacity reform movement, a source of personal inspiration, and a friend, MarĂa Teresa Fernández (affectionately known as Marite), about her passion for this work, the impact of the reform bill, and the road ahead for disability rights in Mexico.
What was it like watching Congress pass the legal capacity reform?
The entire Deciding Is My Right coalition was watching the Mexican Congress channel on TV to see what was happening. We didn’t want to miss a second of the discussions. And when the unanimous decision was reached, we were moved to tears and could hardly believe it. It was all very moving, a very emotional moment.
How will this reform change the lives of people with disabilities and older persons in Mexico?  Â
We hope and expect it will change lives for the better, by empowering people with disabilities and older persons to make decisions by themselves, with support if they so choose. Until now, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities were deemed incapable of deciding the most basic things, like where to live or with whom. So, many of them were put under legal guardianship, meaning that a third party could decide everything for them, even around health treatment.
In the past, people with disabilities and older people whose rights were violated and who were exploited because of legal guardianship could not even participate in the legal proceeding that declared them legally incapable. And their children or relatives would sometimes take advantage of this, abusively using their assets and constraining their decisions.
This bill eliminates guardianship altogether and instead orders the creation of a model of supported decision-making, by which someone could appoint a third person to facilitate the exercise their legal capacity by providing support for communicating, understanding legal acts and their consequences, and expressing their will. Now, hopefully, people can truly be masters of their own lives.
Legal capacity is a threshold right that enables the exercise of many other rights, such as the right to health. Of course, there is also the impact on institutionalization. Until now, shelter directors would often act as guardians for people who were institutionalized and decide what treatment they should receive, locking them up and imposing coercive treatments on them. Now, everything requires the informed consent of the person concerned.
Finally, in terms of political rights, legal capacity is essential for people with disabilities to represent themselves within political parties, participate in such parties, vote, and be elected as representatives.
What is next for implementing the legal capacity reform?
The next steps involve important actions by all civil society actors and the three branches of government.
Firstly, federal and state congresses should pass amendments and recognize the legal capacity of everyone 18 years or over, aligning these amendments with the National Civil and Family Procedure Code. We already have an initiative before Mexico City’s Congress.
Judges need to familiarize themselves with the reform, including through training.
And the executive branch should adopt public policies, in particular concerning support systems and their regulations. It should also create a public entity that provides guidelines to establish supported decision-making services for people who do not have the financial means to avail themselves of such supports.
Training for people with disabilities and their families is also required. Many struggle to understand what this reform means, its implications, how to claim ownership of these implications and how to promote and defend their rights. Families will need training from civil society, from us, so their fears in relation to supported decision making can be explored and clarified, and so they no longer fear that their children will be left unprotected when guardianship ends. And that’s just one of many aspects.
Then, society in general must work to materialize this cultural change, to open up to diversity and, in particular, to accept disability. More broadly, it’s about becoming an increasingly egalitarian and inclusive society.
At the international level, major organizations, like the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, should keep promoting the issue and, through their various agencies, lift up and support as much as possible the organizations working on providing training.
I think everyone has work to do regarding this reform. Regarding the rights of people with disabilities in Mexico, I believe that the stru