An evaluation of what can be done to make Persons with Disabilities’ rights to legal capacity under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Article 12 a practical reality for all Persons with Disabilities in Uganda from the capabilities and vulnerability theory perspective

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
places an obligation on State parties to take steps to ensure that all persons with disabilities can exercise
their rights to legal capacity and equal recognition before the law on an equal basis with others. This
thesis sets out to answer the question “What can be done to make the right to equal recognition before
the law and legal capacity under UNCRPD Article 12 a practical reality for persons with disabilities in
Uganda?” In seeking to answer this question the thesis employs social-legal research qualitative
methods and draws on vulnerability theory and the capabilities approach to establish: (1) the theoretical
basis for the rights enshrined in Article 12; and (2) effective mechanisms for conceptualising and
delivering these rights. As a result, this study provides insights into how Uganda is ensuring all persons
with disabilities have equal recognition before the law and participation in decision-making.
The study finds that, in general, little has been done in Uganda to this end and most persons with
disabilities remain excluded from decision-making exclusively because of the prevailing pervasive
myth that having any impairment inevitably impairs a person’s decision-making capabilities. It also
finds that this failure is attributable to a general lack of awareness by the state, its institutions and
Ugandan society (evident in both persons with and without disabilities) as to how to effectively
implement the obligations inherent in Article 12. The study also discusses the importance of ensuring
that both formal state laws and informal customary laws must be considered in all legislative and nonlegislative
reforms to ensure that these rights are realised for all citizens: regardless of whether they live
in rural or urban settings. Finally, this research strongly suggests that, rather than focusing on persons
with disabilities’ impairments, the state would be better placed if it refocused its efforts to fulfil its
Article 12 obligations on a nationwide programme of building the necessary capabilities, resilience and
understanding among all Ugandans, and its societal institutions, of the inviolable nature of legal
capacity. While this study identifies some legislative and non-legislative measures that have been
implemented in Uganda to this end, it suggests that these remain inadequate because they predominantly
focus on persons with evidence of cognitive impairments.