All states which ratify the Convention on Persons with Disability will necessarily have to alter domestic laws to make available the detailed rights guaranteed. One of the most important articles, considered by many to be the ‘soul of this convention’ is in Article 12, the principle of “equal recognition before law”. It recognizes the ideal that all states need to recognize that all their citizens have equal rights irrespective of the nature and degree of their disability. For instance, national laws that exclude the disabled from the fullness of citizenship, violate the Convention. The guardianship laws of many countries which foresee the full or partial legal ‘incapacity’ of the disabled would need to be changed. Even election laws which do not take the voting rights of the disabled into account need amendment.

A significant aspect of Article 12 is that not only does it guarantee rights and duties on an equal footing with others; it also includes a guarantee to exercise legal capacity. As far as decision-making by the intellectually disabled is concerned, most legal systems have adopted a system of ‘substituted decision making’. Guardianship laws that stipulate some form of legal representation by a third party, and thus deny people their full legal capacity are examples. The convention will require that national laws are amended to help the disabled make decisions – ‘supported decision making’. During the negotiations, the concept of ‘substituted decision making’ was bitterly opposed on the grounds that it refused to acknowledge any evolving ability to make decisions. Accordingly, the Convention seems to encourage the disabled to make their own decisions even though they may seem illogical or contradictory.