Legal Capacity Restoration (Quip)

Authors: Milena Johnová, Dana Kořínková & Jan Strnad

A basic requirement of human rights is that we are each free to make our won decisions. But for people with intellectual disabilities this right is often missing because of institutional assumptions about capacity and the lack of suitable systems for supported decision-making.

Quip is an organisation, based in the Czech Republic, which aims to support people to achieve their human rights. This research report reviews some of the details of their work to help people restore their right to make decisions for themselves, for example, choosing how and where to live and who to live with.

This basic freedom is often obstructed by denial of legal capacity and 'substitute decision making' performed by the guardian.

In accordance with Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Quip is trying to challenge the obsolete model of protection of people with intellectual disabilities by:

1. Providing individual assistance to people in their efforts to restore or maintain legal capacity, using less restrictive measures and a structured system of support.
2. Generalising experiences and exerting efforts to introduce system changes that promote the right of the individual to independent living according to their own will.

Quip began to work systematically using this approach in 2009 when participating in the project Quality of Life as a Goal, a project funded by the European Social Fund. Since January 2012, the work has continued thanks to the Black and White project whose implementation is supported by the Open Society Fund. Actual work with people with disabilities is also financed by social service subsidies but sometimes Quip must use it own limited resources.

Having completed the third phase of the Black and White project in March 2017 Quip published this evaluation of its work on strategic court cases to generalise from the results and to work for strategic change. This report provides a useful insight into the ongoing work to make human rights real for people with intellectual disabilities around the world.

Find out more about the work of Quip at: 

http://www.kvalitavpraxi.cz

Read and download the free pdf in your browser here.

The publisher is Quip.

Legal Cases Of Legal Capacity Restoration and the Use of Support in Decision Making © Milena Johnová, Dana Kořínková & Jan Strnad 2017.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.