Duties of the guardians of persons fully or partially deprived of legal capacity and the respect for diversity in family legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The option of complete or partial deprivation of legal capacity, exercised almost as a rule for certain groups of persons with disabilities and standardized in the current legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, violates not just the fundamental principle of human rights protection, that of equality before the law, but also violates the principle of diversity as one of the key principles in the professional social work practice. In this regard, the legally prescribed obligation of the guardianship body to place under guardianship a person whose legal capacity has been completely or partially removed by a court decision and to appoint a guardian for this person puts professional social workers in a highly unenviable position, especially in the domain of ethics, namely the respect for innate human dignity and the principle of diversity. Following the above, the question arises: is there a way to respect both the principle of diversity and the value of human dignity in this particular case?

Since the answer to this question is negative, this paper provides a comparative legal analysis of the relevant provisions of all three Family Laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to see how, according to the legal powers and duties of the guardians of persons fully or partially deprived of legal capacity, the rights, interests and preferences of the wards are protected.