Description
With a continuing power of attorney adults can mandate an attorney to manage their affairs when their capacity to make decisions is impaired. Although generally applauded for allowing adults to appoint an attorney of their own choosing, the misuse/abuse of CPAs is a growing concern in many countries. Increasingly, the question is asked whether CPAs should not be furnished with more safeguards. Article 12(4) UNCRPD requires states to ensure appropriate and effective safeguards are in place to prevent abuse. Designing such safeguards is a delicate task and requires a careful balance between protection and keeping the CPA an easy-to-use instrument. The latter is necessary to avoid situations where adults circumvent the CPA and search for less-protecting alternatives instead. A balance can be achieved by tailoring safeguards to what is known about the risk of misuse/abuse in practice. In this presentation, I discussed the findings of a study where information on the risk of misuse/abuse had been used to operationalise article 12(4) UNCRPD in the context of the CPA. Directions as to what appropriate safeguards look like were presented and based on examples of safeguards used in five European jurisdictions I illustrated how such safeguards can be implemented in practice.| Period | 8 Jun 2022 |
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| Event title | 7th World Congress on Adult Capacity |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Edinburgh, United KingdomShow on map |