In April 2025, the International Commission of Jurist (ICJ) made a submission to the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) in response to its call for public comments on the draft Protection and Promotion of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2024. The Bill, developed under Project 148, seeks to domesticate the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and establish a comprehensive national legal framework to advance the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in South Africa.
In its submission, the ICJ welcomed the initiative to strengthen disability rights protections. However, it also raised concerns about several provisions of the draft Bill that fall short of international human rights standards, particularly regarding the recognition of legal capacity, the framing of support in decision-making, and the risk of reinforcing substitute decision-making regimes. The ICJ provided recommendations aimed at aligning the Bill more closely with the CRPD, the African Disability Protocol, and other applicable standards, with a view to ensuring a genuinely rights-based and transformative legal framework on disability rights in South Africa
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The submission is available for download here.