Twenty years after the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), we appear to be approaching an impasse when it comes to the right to legal capacity.

While many countries have introduced reforms, changes are slow to materialise in practice, and some Member States have yet to take meaningful steps. Since 2024, the European Commission and several national governments have also been working towards the ratification of the 2000 Hague Convention on the Protection of Adults — a pre-UN CRPD instrument that would enable the automatic recognition of guardianship, curatorship, and institutional placements across borders.

This has created new uncertainty.

Will we see a regression in the right to legal capacity?

Could this lead to a renewed expansion of substituted decision-making?

How can we generate new impulses for reforms for the right to legal capacity at the national, European and international level?

Join us for our Independent Living Day event 2026 which we are dedicating to the topic of legal capacity and supported decision-making!

📅 Date: 5 of May 2026

🕐Time: 13:00 – 17:00 (CET)

📍Location: Mundo Madou. Av. des Arts 7/8, 1210 Bruxelles

💻 Format: Hybrid (in-person and online)

Register here to join our event online

Register here to join our event in-person in Brussels

The venue is at Avenue des Arts 7/8, 1210 Brussels

We want to establish an open dialogue between many of the stakeholders involved, discuss where we stand and how we can generate new impulses for reform.

Join us for our Independent Living Day event 2026 on legal capacity!

Speakers will include:

Welcome and introduction	Nadia Hadad, ENIL, Co-chair of the board
Panel 1: Using supported decision-making. The voice of self-advocates 13:10-14:00	Nicolas Joncour, ENIL Youth Board/Cle Autiste Soufiane El-Amrani, Inclusion Europe Simon Johansson (online)/Agneta Scherman, JAG Personlig assistans Thiandi Groof, Inclusion Europe
Panel 2: Applying supported decision-making 14:00-14:35	Peer support based supported decision-making Jo Minchin, National Autistic Task Force UK/EUCAP Legal capacity reform in Malta Dr Alistair De Gaetano, Government of Malta Access to legal capacity in Georgia Dea Eremashvili, Alliance of Women with Disabilities, Georgia
Coffee break 14:35-15:05
Panel 3: The influence of international norms 15:05-15:45	The relevance of The Hague Convention on the International Protection of Adults for national reforms on legal capacity. Simona Florescu, Validity – Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (in-person) María Reyes Sánchez Moreno, Council of Notaries of the European Union (CNUE) Legal obligations under the UN CRPD Markus Schefer, Rapporteur for the EU at the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Panel 4: Finding a way forward 15:45-16:35	Krzyzstof Smiszek, Member of the European Parliament Marine Uldry, European Disability Forum Freddy Jussein, Inclusion Europe Kristijan Grdjan, Mental Health Europe Pia Lindholm, European Commission
Questions and discussion 16:35-17:00
Concluding remarks	Nadia Hadad, ENIL, Co-chair of the board

Accessibility requirements:

Attention: if no registrant requires captioning and sign language until 7 days before the event, the services may be cancelled.):*

Register here to join our event online

Register here to join our event in-person in Brussels

About the European Network on Independent Living

The European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) is a disabled-led, cross-disability network of disabled people and their representative organisations. ENIL promotes the right to independent living, as set out in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), its General Comments and the Guidelines on deinstitutionalisation, including in emergencies. ENIL’s work is guided by the CRPD and the Independent Living principles, enshrined in the Independent Living Pillars. ENIL is active at the European level, and internationally, through cooperation with Centres for Independent Living from around the globe. ENIL’s actions and activities are based on the social and the human rights models of disability, and on the principles of inclusive equality, self-determination, solidarity and intersectionality.

ENIL has participatory status with the Council of Europe (i.e. is a member of the Conference of INGOs) and consultative status with ECOSOC.

Contact us

European Network on Independent Living (ENIL)

6thFloor – Mundo J

Rue de l’Industrie 10

1000 Brussels

Belgium

E-mail: secretariat@enil.eu

Website: www.enil.eu

Written by: Florian Sanden

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.