uncrpd - sdm project

Pilot Project on Supported Decision Making

The Supported Decision Making Pilot Project is a joint initiative of Inclusion International and PARIVAAR, the National Federation of Parents’ Associations for Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the National Trust.  The purpose of the project is to pilot supported decision making as a means of empowering adults with intellectual disabilities in their lives and the community, and to develop public awareness and support for the equal legal capacity of adults with intellectual disabilities.  The project aims to develop support networks around 15-20 adults with intellectual disabilities in the surrounding communities.  Based on the results of the project, consideration will be given to expanding in 2010 and beyond.

This Project Outline briefly describes the background to this project, and reports on 2-day forum to design the pilot project.  This report has been prepared under the auspices of the Community Coordinating Forum for the Project on Supported Decision Making, a group of parents, community supporters and professionals who convened June 16-17, 2009 for this purpose.

Backround:

‘Supported decision making’ refers to a process of developing networks of support around individual adults with intellectual disabilities, to assist them in planning for their future lives in the community and to assist them in making decisions.  Networks include people chosen by the adult with an intellectual disability to assist them, and include family, friends, and community advocates.

Supported decision making has been developed as a way to assist adults with intellectual disabilities to obtain decision making assistance from people they know and trust, without requiring the individual to come under formal guardianship.  The call for supported decision making comes with India’s signing and ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Article 12 of the Convention recognizes legal equality of all persons, regardless of their disability, and a right to support to exercise their legal capacity

States Parties:

1. Reaffirm that persons with disabilities have the right to recognition everywhere as persons before the law.
2. Shall recognize that persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.
3. Shall take appropriate measures to provide access by persons with disabilities to the support they may require in exercising their legal capacity.

With the support of Inclusion International, PARIVAAR is undertaking this project to demonstrate how to put supported decision making into practice, and to develop recommendations for expanding these systems and approach to securing the full legal capacity of people with intellectual disabilities.

Organization of the Project:

The project is sponsored by PARIVAAR, which has selected ‘Inspiration’ one of its member organizations to carry out the pilot initiative, and has engaged Saswati Singh, Director of Inspiration, to act as Project Coordinator.