Legal capacity is a cornerstone of human rights. It is the legal recognition that a person can hold rights and exercise them: to make decisions about one’s own life, manage finances, consent to medical treatment, choose where to live, form relationships, enter into contracts, vote, and access justice. Without legal capacity, these rights exist only on paper.
Under international law, including Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), states are required to recognize that all persons enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others and to provide access to the supports people may need to exercise that capacity. Ukraine ratified the CRPD in 2010, committing itself to this standard of equality and non-discrimination.
Yet the reality on the ground remains starkly different. Tens of thousands of adults in Ukraine—primarily people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities—are currently under guardianship or subject to court-ordered restrictions on their legal capacity. In many cases, this results in what has been described as a form of “civil death”: individuals lose the legal authority to make even basic decisions about their own lives, with power transferred to guardians or institutions. These arrangements often last for decades, with minimal opportunity for review or restoration.
The newly released study takes a comprehensive approach to understanding this problem. Using the Legal Capacity Inclusion Lens (LCIL), a structured analytical tool developed by the New Society Institute, the research examines Ukraine’s legal capacity regime as a whole—across civil law, procedural law, judicial practice, and institutional systems. Rather than focusing on a single statute, the study analyzes how multiple legal provisions interact to either enable or restrict the exercise of legal capacity in everyday life.
The findings are clear and concerning. Ukraine’s legal capacity regime remains largely grounded in outdated, disability-based models that link legal capacity to medical diagnoses or cognitive assessments. Guardianship and substituted decision-making continue to be the default response, while supported decision-making—where people receive assistance to understand, make, and implement their own decisions—is largely absent from law and practice. Court data shows that decisions to deprive legal capacity vastly outnumber decisions to restore it, despite legislative amendments requiring periodic review.
The study also highlights systemic data gaps. No single authority in Ukraine maintains comprehensive, disaggregated, and transparent data on how many people are deprived of legal capacity, for how long, or under what conditions restoration occurs. This lack of reliable data obscures the scale of the problem and undermines evidence-based policymaking.
Importantly, the study situates legal capacity reform within Ukraine’s broader reform agenda. Legal capacity is inseparable from deinstitutionalization, independent living, access to justice, and social inclusion. Without full recognition of legal capacity, efforts to close institutions, develop community-based services, and promote autonomy cannot succeed. The research also places Ukraine’s obligations in the context of European integration, where alignment with CRPD standards is a foundational requirement.
Beyond diagnosis, the study offers a forward-looking framework for reform. Drawing on comparative experiences from other countries, it outlines practical policy directions for transitioning from guardianship and substituted decision-making toward a system grounded in equality, dignity, autonomy, and support.
This study is a call to action. Reforming legal capacity is not a technical legal exercise—it is about restoring voice, choice, and control to people whose lives have too often been governed by others. Ensuring equal recognition before the law is essential to building a modern, rights-based, and inclusive Ukraine.
The full study is now available – in English and in Ukrainian – and is intended for policymakers, legislators, judges, advocates, service providers, and all those committed to advancing the rights of persons with disabilities in Ukraine.
