Decision making is the basis for individual autonomy and societal participation. To support persons' human right to make life decisions, the model of supported decision making (SDM) has evolved and complies with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Models for implementing SDM and outcomes achieved by applying SDM in community settings remain insufficiently explored. This study used a human rights perspective with participatory, qualitative research methods to investigate environmental conditions and social support measures that enabled persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) to make and implement their own decisions. Data gathered were 6 months of field notes about implementing SDM in a L'Arche day activity program with 26 adults with ID, with opinions and drawings illustrating persons' decision making. All data were analyzed thematically. As a result of using the SDM intervention, persons with ID became more expressive, able to discuss and debate options, participated in organizational and municipal decision making, and expressed "joy" and feeling "more like a human." Staff supporters found SDM fulfilling and noticed it increased the sense of ownership persons with ID experienced in individual and group meetings. An organizational environment that respects human dignity, supports sustained relationships between persons with ID and decision supporters, individualizes SDM depending on how persons can communicate, and encourages staff self-reflection about prejudices and positionality is essential for implementing SDM with persons with ID. SDM processes shift oppressive social narratives and policies in the direction of a social, relational model of the decision-making capacities and competencies of persons with ID. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

By adopting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD) in New York, the United Nations heralded a new epoch on how disability-related matters ought to be comprehended and addressed across the globe. The aim of this article is to argue the role and substance of the CRPD, under which each State Party has a responsibility and duty to protect, promote and implement access to justice for all persons with disabilities on equal bases with others. Systemic and structural barriers to access to justice that are faced by persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities are highlighted, and the determinants of them are identified including boundaries of the principle of formal equality. The human-rights-based response within the framework of obligations of the States Parties of the CRPD to ensure access to justice for persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities is argued, with specific consideration of the principle of transformative equality. The analysis is based on the CRPD Committee’s jurisprudence, including Concluding observations for the States Parties, General Comments, statements and guidelines.

In 2022 the UN CRPD Committee was informed about the disproportionate exposure of persons with disabilities to the risks engendered by military Russian aggression in Ukraine – risks such as poverty, violence, abandonment, injuries and death. This commentary provides an overview of the main issues identified.

This article investigates the family and child welfare system in Lithuania in terms of social sustainability, with an emphasis on children’s rights. The conceptual framework of Gilbert et al. (2011a) on child welfare was used as the substance of the research, identifying the problem frame, aim and mode of intervention, and parent–state relationship as the main dimensions for analyzing configurations of the child welfare systems. The analysis in this article focuses on how the family and child welfare system is observed in everyday professional practice in Lithuania by linking it with the social sustainability concept. The quantitative research sample comprised 501 respondents from Lithuania, representing different professionals of the family and child welfare system. An online questionnaire was distributed across regional municipal social services departments and to the national service of the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service. Explorative factor analysis and multidimensional scaling were used for data analysis. The research demonstrated that family and child welfare dimensions are meaningfully related to the social sustainability concept through the rights of a child such as the child’s best interests, accessibility to services, the right to be heard, protection against violence, child identity, development assurance, and so forth. The research indicates the need for awareness raising, including education and training for professional actors regarding child and family welfare, as an integral part of the concept of social sustainability.