Criticism of the Adult Protection Act: Council for the Disabled Warns of Risks!

Criticism of the Adult Protection Act: Council for the Disabled Warns of Risks!

In Austria, changes to adult protection law are being debated as part of the 2025 Budget Accompanying Act, which are meeting with considerable resistance. The Austrian Council for the Disabled has clearly spoken out against these planned adjustments as they potentially jeopardize the protection of human rights. Klaus Widl, President of the Austrian Council for the Disabled, points out the need to avoid hasty changes to adult protection law in order not to jeopardize the progress made by the 2nd Adult Protection Act.

The main points of the proposed legislative changes include, among other things, the extension of the deadline for the renewal of judicial adult representation from three to five years. In addition, the deletion of mandatory clearing in the renewal process should be decided. The possibility that lawyers and notaries can be used as adult representatives is also part of the draft. These changes are considered unacceptable by the Council for the Disabled as they call into question the rights of people with disabilities.

Requirements and evaluation process

The Council for the Disabled calls on the Justice Minister Dr. Anna Sporrer calls for two specific points to be deleted from the draft: the extension of the deadline for renewal (Section 246 ABGB) and the deletion of mandatory clearing (Section 128 AußStrG). Widl emphasizes that the protection of human rights for people with disabilities must be guaranteed, which is seriously called into question by the planned cuts.

It is also important that a working group in the Ministry of Justice has been working on the evaluation of the Adult Protection Act since summer 2024. The planned amendment is therefore in direct contradiction to the results of this working group. In this context, Austria was reprimanded in many areas during the last state review by the UN Committee of Experts on the Rights of People with Disabilities in August 2023, while the 2nd Adult Protection Act was positively highlighted.

International context and human rights

The discussion about adult protection law in Austria takes place against the background of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-BRK). This convention aims to promote, protect and ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms for approximately 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide. In Germany, the UN CRPD was ratified on February 24, 2009 and came into force on March 26, 2009, which resulted in a paradigm shift in disability policy and recognition of the human rights of people with disabilities.

The UN CRPD specifies rights such as access to education, the world of work and cultural life and regulates participation in various areas of life. States parties are obliged to submit regular reports on the status of the implementation of these rights and must actively implement the Convention. This obligation shows the need for comprehensive protection against discrimination and exclusion, which could be endangered in Austria by the intended changes to adult protection law.

The issue of reforms in adult protection law illustrates the crucial role of legislative measures to protect human rights and points to the international nature of this problem, as the German Institute for Human Rights also emphasizes. The agreed goal of the UN CRPD remains that all people with disabilities have equal and full access to their rights and that the necessary protective mechanisms are in place.

With a view to the next steps, it remains to be seen how the legal situation will develop and whether there will be a dialogue between political decision-makers and representatives of the disability rights movement.