In Search of Legal Capacity: Law, Guardianship, and Supported Decision-Making in Intellectually Disabled People's Lives in Turkey

该项目建议对土耳其智障人士和智障人士的决策制度进行一项创新的社会法律研究。自2006年通过以来，《联合国残疾人权利公约》(CRPD)第12条对法律和社会提出了重大挑战：如何废除替代的决策机制，支持智力残疾人在与其他人平等的基础上享有法律行为能力，同时防止剥削、虐待和暴力。今天，大多数残疾法律奖学金都在努力应对使国内能力法律与《残疾人权利和政治权利国际公约》所规定的权利保持一致的挑战，然而，限制仍然存在。关于法律能力的学术讨论往往主要集中在正式法律上，忽视了日常生活的关键领域，并加剧了智障人士被排除在关于他们自己生活的学术、法律和政策讨论之外。此外，在全球北方进行的研究优先于全球南方个人和社区的经验、需求和观点。由于这种双重边缘化，我们对全球南部智障人士的实际生活和斗争知之甚少。这项研究试图通过对土耳其和更广泛的中东和北非(中东和北非)地区的智障人士在日常生活中的法律能力进行首次深入调查，来填补这些重大空白。特别是，它将审查法律、监护和得到支持的决策如何在CRPD的全球愿望与土耳其当地关于“能力”的理解和做法的交叉点上相互作用和影响智障人士的日常经历。研究数据将包括立法和政策文件；对专业人士的半结构化采访；对家庭的叙述性采访；以及对智障人士的摄影日记采访。该项目在研究不足的情况下，通过其原始方法产生的新的经验性见解将使人们能够挑战自上而下对“能力”的定义，并导致自下而上的新的概念化，帮助制定有背景的、实用的方法来支持决策。土耳其作为“西方”和“东方”之间字面上和象征性的桥梁的定位，使其成为一个非常适合处理智力残疾人“能力”建设背后的社会和法律动态的背景，并将使该项目能够为他们充分享有法律能力的权利作出独特的、跨文化的贡献。因此，该项目的贡献将是地区性的、方法性的、概念性的和实践性的。从共同产生知识和影响的角度来看，该项目将在每个阶段积极吸引利益攸关方社区。残疾妇女协会是一个由土耳其残疾妇女经营的残疾权利组织，是项目合作伙伴。他们的投入塑造了项目设计，并将在整个研究周期内为共同产生知识提供信息和支持。与项目伙伴和其他利益攸关方团体的定期会议将是加强互惠、牢固的关系和为不同用户群体翻译调查结果的关键。研究成果将通过网络资源、项目讲习班结束和调查结果报告及其易读版本、知识交流活动、政策简介、项目旅程视频和将以智障参与者创作的艺术品为特色的在线展览进行分发。该项目提供基于证据的政策建议和实际支持形式，将有助于缩小智力残疾人与国家和国际各级法律、政策和学术之间的差距，并最终增强他们的权能，以实现自决。

This project proposes an innovative socio-legal study of the regime of decision-making by and with intellectually disabled people in Turkey. Since its adoption in 2006, Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has posed a major challenge for law and society: how to abolish substituted decision-making regimes and support intellectually disabled people to enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others, while preventing exploitation, abuse and violence. Most disability law scholarship today grapples with the challenges of bringing domestic capacity laws into line with the rights enshrined in the CRPD, however, limitations remain. Scholarly conversation on legal capacity tends to largely focus on formal law, overlooking the crucial domain of the everyday and intensifying intellectually disabled people's exclusion from academic, legal and policy discussions on their own lives. Furthermore, research conducted in the Global North takes precedence over the experiences, needs and perspectives of individuals and communities of the Global South. As a result of this double marginalisation, we know even less about the actual lives and struggles of intellectually disabled people in the Global South. This research seeks to fill these significant gaps by constituting the first in-depth examination of intellectually disabled people's legal capacity in everyday life in Turkey and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In particular, it will examine how the law, guardianship and supported decision-making interact and impact intellectually disabled people's everyday experiences, at the intersections of the global aspirations of the CRPD and local understandings and practices around 'capacity' in Turkey. Research data will include legislation and policy documents; semi-structured interviews with professionals; narrative interviews with families; and photo-diary interviews with intellectually disabled people. The fresh empirical insights that the project generates via its original methodology in an under-studied context will enable to challenge top-down definitions of 'capacity' and lead to new conceptualisations from below, helping develop contextualised, practical approaches to supported decision-making. Turkey's positioning as a literal and symbolical bridge between the 'West' and the 'East' makes it a very suitable context to address the social and legal dynamics underlying constructions of intellectually disabled people's 'capacity' and will allow the project to offer a unique, yet cross-culturally relevant contribution towards their full enjoyment of the right to legal capacity. The contribution of the project will be therefore regional, methodological and conceptual, as well as practical.With a view of co-production of knowledge and impact, the project will actively engage stakeholder communities at every stage. The Association of Women with Disabilities, a disability rights organisation run by disabled women in Turkey, is a Project Partner. Their inputs have shaped the project design and will inform and support the co-production of knowledge throughout the research cycle. Regular meetings with the Project Partner and other stakeholder groups will be key in the enhancement of mutually beneficial, strong relationships and translation of findings for different user communities. Research outputs will be distributed via web resources, an end of project workshop and findings report with its easy read version, a knowledge exchange event, a policy brief, a project journey video, and an online exhibition that will feature artwork produced by intellectually disabled participants. Offering evidence-based recommendations for policy and practical forms of support, the project will contribute to closing the gap between intellectually disabled people and law, policy, and scholarship at national and international levels, and ultimately to their empowerment to achieve self-determination.