Divergent Human Rights Approaches to Capacity and Consent [BOOK CHAPTER]

Divergent Human Rights Approaches to Capacity and Consent [BOOK CHAPTER]
Gerald Neuman
Mental Health, Legal Capacity, and Human Rights, 2021 [Cambridge University Press]
Abstract
The institutional dialogue among the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other human rights tribunals has led to greater protection of rights. But not all courts and treaty bodies have accepted the Committee’s absolutist position on legal capacity. The chapter illustrates the multiple human rights-based approaches to capacity and decision-making, and describes how the Committee’s absolutism endangers many of the people living with moderate or severe dementia whom it supposedly benefits.