MDAC Executive Director: reject oppressive guardianship regimes

Oliver Lewis, MDAC Executive Director, was a keynote speaker this week at the 2nd World Congress on Adult Guardianship, which took place on Monday and Tuesday in Melbourne, Australia.

In his speech to the 400 conference participants who came from 14 countries, Oliver presented the work of MDAC. He used the case of Stanev v. Bulgaria to illustrate the horrors of plenary guardianship regimes. Using a theory by political philosopher and lawyer Jeremy Waldron, he asserted:

“My contention is that a system of commands which is so top down, so disproportionate and so brutal cannot reasonably be said to be oriented to the public good. As such, we should reject such a system as law, we should not grace it with the respect we show to laws which serve some legitimate purpose.”

MDAC is currently working across eleven countries in central and eastern Europe on legal capacity law reforms, helping governments to adopt progressive, feasible laws and policies to strike the right balance between autonomy and protection against exploitation and abuse.

Oliver's travel and accommodation were kindly funded by the conference organisers.