By Alessandra Suuberg, Decency LLC
Mexico received international attention this year when its Congress “recognize[d] full legal capacity for everyone”—a move commended by human right advocates as “abolish[ing] guardianship” at the federal level.
This legal change was not the only instance where guardianship reform made headlines in 2023.
Guardianships, also sometimes known as conservatorships, have lately been the subject of numerous reports and controversies, both high-profile and less highly-publicized.
These legal arrangements are intended to protect individuals from exploitation and abuse—if those individuals are believed not to be capable of making their own decisions—by giving someone else authority to make decisions in their place. But the potential downsides of guardianship include loss of control over a variety of domains such as marriage, employment, and finances, and the possibility that the arrangement will itself become abusive or be difficult to rescind.
In light of these and other concerns, the following were some of the guardianship reform efforts reported around the world this year:
Mexico
Human rights organization Human Rights Watch reported that this year’s legal change in Mexico came by way of a new national civil procedure code, which grants all adults full legal capacity and a right to supported decision making.
The change followed a 2021 ruling in the First Chamber of the Supreme Court, according to which guardianship was unconstitutional and discriminatory against people with disabilities.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Supreme Court’s ruling prohibits all guardianship systems, but the new code “won’t enter into force fully for four years,” and state legislatures need to update their laws to comply.
Australia
Earlier this month in Australia, ABC News reported on the country’s “biggest-ever investigation into the abuse and exploitation of people with disability,” the Disability Royal Commission, which found a need for reform of Australia’s guardianship and administration system.
The Disability Royal Commission was established in 2019 to investigate violence against or abuse of individuals with disabilities. It delivered a report to the Australian government in September 2023 with recommendations concerning the improvement of various laws and practices.
United States—Nevada
In March, Bloomberg reported on a past legal reform in Nevada that had “beg[u]n requiring independent lawyers be assigned to represent adults” facing potential guardianship.
According to a 2021 annual report from the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, the “right to counsel in guardianship cases ha[d] significantly changed the landscape of guardianship” in Nevada, and that in that year, 25% of adult guardianship cases were dismissed and 23% of minor guardianship cases were dismissed through legal intervention.
United States—North Carolina
Last month in the United States, the North Carolina legislature passed a bill making changes to the state’s guardianship laws.
The change was lauded by Rethinking Guardianship, a statewide effort carried out at the School of Social Work at UNC Chapel Hill. Both the reform campaign pursued by this group, and the types of reforms sought in North Carolina, received coverage earlier this year from the Carolina Public Press.
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