The Convention's Substantive Rights

In one line

Articles 10 to 23 carry the civil and political rights: the right to life, situations of risk, legal capacity with support, access to justice, liberty, freedom from torture, freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse, integrity of the person, movement and nationality, living independently in the community, personal mobility, expression and access to information, privacy, and home and the family.

Articles 10 and 11

Article 10, right to life: States reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

Article 11, situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies: all necessary measures to ensure protection and safety in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.

Article 11 is the treaty's answer to a documented pattern: in an evacuation, in a flood and in a camp, the person who cannot move unaided is left behind. It is also the article to cite in [Climate, Displacement and the Newly Disadvantaged].

Article 12: equal recognition before the law

This is the article to know in full.

12(1): States reaffirm that persons with disabilities have the right to recognition everywhere as persons before the law.

12(2): States shall recognise that persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.

12(3): States shall take appropriate measures to provide access to the support they may require in exercising their legal capacity.

12(4): all measures relating to the exercise of legal capacity shall provide appropriate and effective safeguards to prevent abuse, which shall ensure that such measures respect the rights, will and preferences of the person, are free of conflict of interest and undue influence, are proportional and tailored to the person's circumstances, apply for the shortest time possible, and are subject to regular review by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body, the safeguards being proportional to the degree to which the measures affect the person's rights and interests.

12(5): States shall ensure the equal right to own or inherit property, to control their own financial affairs and to have equal access to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit, and that persons with disabilities are not arbitrarily deprived of their property.

Why article 12 changed Indian law.

The old law was guardianship. A person found to be of unsound mind lost the capacity to contract, to sue, to marry, to manage property and to consent, and a guardian exercised those capacities in their place. That is substituted decision-making: the guardian's will replaces the person's.