Independent Living Day 5 of May 2026
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!
The event will start at 13:00 (CET) and will be hybrid.
Register here to join our event online
Register here to join our event in-person in Brussels
The right to legal capacity is crucial for Independent Living. Without it there is no freedom from institutions and no right to taking decisions about ones live. Twenty years after the adoption of the UN CRPD there is new insecurity as to where we were headed.
Many countries have introduced legal capacity reforms, however changes are slow to materialise in practice. Some countries are abstaining from doing reforms.
Since 2024, the European Commission and some national governments have been trying hard to ratify the 2000 Hague Convention on the protection of adults in the European Union. This pre-UN CRPD document, seeks to install legal procedures for the automatic recognition of guardianship, curatorship and placements in institutions across borders.
This move by the European Union has created new insecurity. Will we regress when it comes to the right to legal capacity? Will we see a new expansion of substituted decision-making?
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:
- Nadia Hadad, Co-chair – European Network on Independent Living
- Krzyzstof Smiszek, Member of the European Parliament – JURI Committee
- Dr. Alistair De Gaetano, Ministry of Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector – Government of the Republic of Malta
- Prof. Markus Schefer, CRPD-Committee – Rapporteur for the EU
- Marine Uldry, Policy Officer and legal capacity expert – European Disability Forum
- Freddy Jussein, Policy Officer – Inclusion Europe
- Florian Sanden, Policy Coordinator – European Network on Independent Living
The event will start at 13:00 (CET) and will be hybrid.
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
© European Network on Independent Living, 2025
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.