Category: My Home, My Choice
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Slovakia: UN says stop putting people in cages and get them out of institutions
The UN Human Rights Committee has recommended that the Slovakian Government abolish cage beds and restraints in psychiatric institutions and speed up the evacuation of people with disabilities out of institutions and into the community. More than 40,000 people with disabilities live in Slovakia’s social care and psychiatric institutions. These places segregate people from the…
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Moldova: Psychiatrist guilty of raping multiple women with disabilities
Today in Bălți, Moldova, a psychiatrist was found guilty of several counts of rape that he committed during the course of a decade against 16 women under his care in a 400-bed social care institution. Dr. Florea Stanislav was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment. Ana (not her real name) recounted at the trial how she…
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Russia: For first time Russia admits overcrowding and injustice in psychiatric hospital
After six years of litigation at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the Russian Government has admitted violations of our client, Rafael Usmanov’s rights. He was detained in an overcrowded secure psychiatric hospital and denied any opportunity of having his detention reviewed. It is the first psychiatric overcrowding case in the Court’s history. In 2002,…
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Duped, detained and drugged
Today, the European Court of Human Rights found that 55-year-old Jaroslav Červenka from the Czech Republic was deceived and wrongfully held in a social care institution for eight months (judgment here). Validity (formerly MDAC) calls on the Government to prohibit disability-based incarceration, and to evacuate the more than 28,000 people living in social care institutions, and…
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Polish Constitutional Court says stop segregating people with disabilities
The Polish Constitutional Court has ruled that laws allowing guardians to detain people in social care institutions without court’s supervision are unconstitutional. This landmark judgment should change the law for an estimated 12,500 people under guardianship living in institutions. In 2002, Mr Stanislaw Kędzior’s brother was his guardian and sent him to a social care…
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Slovakia questioned at UN on institutions, education and rights of children with disabilities
Slovakia’s disability rights record was scrutinised by the UN’s disability expert committee this week. Validity (formerly MDAC) and Slovak NGOs sent information to the committee so that it could recommend to the Government to make progress on community-based services and make sure each child with disabilities gets an education. Validity and Slovak human rights organisations have called…
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Regional African Treaty has Potential to “Strengthen Implementation” of Disability Rights on the Continent
Validity (formerly MDAC) has provided detailed recommendations to the African Commission on Humans and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) as it develops a regional Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa. The submission draws on Validity’s extensive research on the lives of people with mental disabilities in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia and calls for “effective remedies” for…
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Russian woman with mental health issues takes fight to Strasbourg to challange guardianship
Validity (formerly MDAC) and lawyer, Dmitri Bartenev, have submitted legal arguments to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on behalf of Russian citizen, Lyudmila Shakulina, after she was placed under guardianship in an unfair procedure. Ms. Shakulina also seeks recognition and redress for involuntary detention authorised by her guardians. Ms. Shakulina was placed in a psychiatric hospital against her…