Validity Foundation - Mental Disability Advocacy Centre

Category: I’m A Person

Under this campaign, we call for recognition of equal citizenship of people with mental disabilities, including their right to make decisions about their own lives. Too often, people with mental disabilities are labelled as “incompetent” or are denied the right to decide by punitive guardianship systems. They may be denied the right to vote, to marry, to manage their own money, and even to decide where to live. Instead of systems based on restriction and control, we push governments to provide support to people to make their own decision – so that they can be the authors of their own lives.

Covid19 Disability Rights Monitor map

Launch of the COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor Dashboard

Since 20 April 2020, through a global survey, the COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor (DRM) has been gathering data to conduct rapid independent monitoring of state measures concerning persons with disabilities in the context of the pandemic. Today, the initiative reaches a new milestone with the launch of the… Read More

Photo of the Conseil d'Etat, Paris

Covid-19: Urgent application before French Conseil d’Etat on rights to life and freedom of persons with disabilities

JOINT STATEMENT Collectif pour la Liberté d’Expression des Autistes and Validity are concerned about the French government’s decision to confine persons in medical and social care institutions that host persons with disabilities. Confronted by massive violations of fundamental rights, particularly the rights to freedom, protection from arbitrary detention and the… Read More

Hungarian government must suspend and redesign deinstitutionalisation projects

NGOs are demanding the suspension and redesign of deinstitutionalisation projects managed by the Hungarian government with funding from the European Commission. According to the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), the Validity Foundation (formerly MDAC) and the European Network on Independent Living, the scheme to ‘deinstitutionalise’ 29 large institutions breaches national… Read More

The faces of mental health in Uganda

Today, Mental Health Uganda (MHU) and Validity release a new film documenting the lives and experiences of people with mental health issues across the country. Entitled “The faces of mental health in Uganda“, the film vividly depicts the social isolation and human rights violations faced by… Read More