Although prevention of violation of rights and establishment of an advocacy system are essential for the realization of the social participation and flourishing community life of people with intellectual disabilities, in the current state of the art, these mailers are extremely insufficient in all aspects, including the relevant legislation. However, a few things have changed for the better, compared to the past.These are discussed in this section.
(a) Start of deliberation about a guardianship system for adults (Ministry of Justice)
In June 1993, the Deliberation Council on Legislation started deliberations about the fact that the incompetency system for persons with intellectual disabilities does not pay sufficient attention to human rights (for example, full management by the guardian, and entry to the person's register), and about the guardianship system for adults, which mainly regulates partial guardianship based on the respect for the person 5 own wishes and on the contract that has already been introduced in many advanced nations.
(b) Reports of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Research Committee on Financial Management
The Research Committee on Financial Management for People with Intellectual Disabilities,established in the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1993, published a summary of the results of a study of the financial management system from the viewpoint of rights advocacy in August, 1995. This summary says that "it is important to design environments where people's rights are advocated and where they can use their own property effectively. In order to achieve this, administrative entities should be established in each prefecture which, as a main service, nominate financial managers to offer advice to them."
(c) Practices of the Rights Advocacy Center "Step"
In 1992, ahead of all the prefectures, Metropolitan Tokyo established the "Rights Advocacy Center Step'". In the first three years after its opening, about 1,100 consultations were provided to persons with intellectual disability, including about 510 professional consultations (46.9%) in which lawyers and other professionals dealt with them directly. Of these, nearly half (47.5%) were cases dealing with the inheritance and management of estates.
Some local governments are establishing or considering establishing rights advocacy centers on their own, referring to the "Rights Advocacy Center 'Step"' as a model.
In order to realize rights advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities, a rights advocacy system modeled after that described above should be established in each community.
2. Self-Advocacy in 1995
In terms of self-advocacy, 1995 was a year of participation in policymaking and the beginning of solidarity.
In January, the Japanese Parents' Association for the Mentally Retarded (former name) tried something new when it changed its name. It set up several opportunities for representatives of local organizations of people with intellectual disabilities to participate in conferences considering the name change. According to these representatives' advice, it was decided to change the Association's name to the Japanese Association for Hand in Hand, which does not contain the words "mentally retarded","intellectual disability", or "parent".
There were two main reasons for using this method to select a new name. First, a written resolution at the section meeting of the national self-advocacy conference in 1994 made this demand: "From now on, when you decide something relating to us, we want to you do it with our participation." Second,between 1990 and 1995, many self-advocacy organizations were started in various places in Japan, and the organizations began to exchange information voluntarily more frequently. (A survey by the
