Category: I’m A Person
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The European Committee of Social Rights publishes a new decision against Czechia concerning the use of cage beds
The European Committee of Social Rights, in a decision of 14 February 2024, has delivered a verdict addressing severe human rights violations in Czechia. This decision follows a meticulous examination prompted by a complaint filed in 2019 by the Validity Foundation in partnership with the Forum for Human Rights, highlighting the egregious use of cage…
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Zambia: Zambian authorities must implement the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ recommendations
A range of Zambian organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) and other civil society organizations (CSOs) – who early in March this year made submissions to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Committee) ahead of its examination of Zambia’s compliance with and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights…
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Topház: Court rules Hungarian state authorities responsible for grave disability rights violations
The Budapest Capital Court today issued a judgment finding three state authorities responsible for multiple, grave violations of the rights of 220 adults and children with disabilities detained in the notorious Topház Social Care Home. Validity first exposed the shocking abuses in 2017, reporting on filthy living conditions, violence, torture and ill-treatment, malnutrition and the…
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Empowering Advocacy: Ivana Jankovic’s impactful week with Validity in Budapest
Validity had the honour of hosting Ivana Jankovic, a passionate young disabled activist, for a week as part of the Youth Leadership Programme organised by the European Network on Independent Living. Joining us from her come country Montenegro, Ivana has been actively involved in the disability rights movement since her early youth, with a focus…
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Ukraine Recovery: Statement by the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization and Ukrainian Disability Rights Organisations
The signatories to this letter are the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization and Ukrainian organizations of persons with disabilities dedicated to the protection of rights and full community inclusion of children and adults with disabilities. The Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing the Ukraine Facility is a step…
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Cage Beds, Human Rights, Dignity: Commemorating the Life and Works of Gábor Gombos
In November 2023, Validity and our partners at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) published a unique collection of materials commemorating the life, work and thought of Gábor Gombos, a leading figure in the Hungarian and global disability rights movements and survivor of psychiatry. Gombos, who passed…
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Hungary remains responsible for “grave and systematic violations” of disability rights
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has recently published its findings concerning Hungary’s progress on implementing recommendations following its findings that the country responsible for grave and systematic violations of the rights of persons with disabilities. The Committee highlighted that Hungary has failed to undertake systematic reforms required…
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Zambia: Courts Miss Opportunity to Extend Equal Protection Before the Law for Persons with Intellectual and Psychosocial Disabilities
The Supreme Court of Zambia has handed down a judgment ruling against a petition challenging the constitutionality of Section 4 of the Zambian Mental Health Act 2019. While applauding the petitioners, Sylvester Katontonka of the Mental Health Users’ Network of Zambia (MHUNZA) and Wamundila Waliuya of Disability Rights Watch (DRW), the court upheld a previous…
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Statement on Mainstreaming Disability in the European Parliament’s Vote on the Ukraine Facility
We, the undersigned, acknowledge and applaud the European Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs (AFET) and the Committees on Budgets (BUDG) for their pivotal vote on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing the Ukraine Facility, which took place on October 5, 2023. This proposed regulation is a…
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Strengthening the rights of victims with disabilities
Validity and the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) have published a joint submission to the European Commission in response to the redraft of the Victims’ Rights Directive. Our work and research over many years have shown how victims with disabilities are all but invisible in the justice system – see in particular the Voices…