Category: My Home, My Choice

Empowering Advocacy: Ivana Jankovic’s impactful week with Validity in Budapest

in Article, I’m A Person, My Home, My Choice

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…
Czechia: European Court of Human Rights Finds Violation of Right to Life of Young Man Tasered in Psychiatric Hospital

in Article, Czech Republic, My Home, My Choice, Uncategorised

For the first time, the European Court of Human Rights has found that the Czech Republic violated a young man’s right to life due to wrong and violent interventions by the staff of a locked psychiatric hospital and police, tragically resulting in his death. The judgment sets an important precedent, challenging the common restraint practices…
Mexico: Validity intervenes before the National Supreme Court of Justice to argue coercive psychiatric treatment violates CRPD

in Mexico, My Home, My Choice

In November 2023, Validity submitted an Amicus Curiae in a trial initiated by Documenta which concerns the involuntary hospitalization and treatment of 90 women with disabilities in a psychiatric hospital in Mexico. The unlawful treatment and detention of these women clearly raised issues of a general nature regarding the impact on the enjoyment of human…
Cage Beds, Human Rights, Dignity: Commemorating the Life and Works of Gábor Gombos

in Article, Campaigns, Hungary, I’m A Person, My Home, My Choice

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…
Hungary remains responsible for “grave and systematic violations” of disability rights

in Article, Hungary, I’m A Person, My Home, My Choice

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…
Czechia must adopt concrete steps towards deinstitutionalisation to prevent inherent risk of ill-treatment in institutions – Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights says

in Czech Republic, My Home, My Choice

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has published an eagerly anticipated report following her visit to Czechia in February 2023. Validity welcomes that the Commissioner’s report highlights key human rights violations experienced by persons with disabilities in Czechia. The Commissioner notes a lack of progress on abolishing guardianship measures applied to persons with…
European Committee of Social Rights: Finland did not violate the Charter by locking people with disabilities in institutions during the pandemic

in My Home, My Choice

On 25 August 2023, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers decided that Finland did not violate the European Social Charter by isolating people with disabilities in institutions during the coronavirus pandemic. The decision initially prepared by the European Committee of Social Rights can be found here. In 2019 and 2020, Finland decided to entirely…
UKRAINE RECOVERY: Humanitarian Donors’ Obligations to Ensure Inclusion, Not Institutions for Persons with Disabilities

in Article, My Home, My Choice, Press Release, Ukraine

Today, Ukrainian OPDs and civil society called on the political leadership and all humanitarian actors dealing with the crisis in Ukraine to ensure international assistance prioritizes deinstitutionalization and inclusion in the community for all persons with disabilities, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Guidelines on…
Romania: Victims of Ilfov Must Receive Reparations and Redress – Public Letter of Concern to the Romanian Government and International Community

in Article, I’m A Person, My Home, My Choice, Press Release, Romania

The following is an open letter on behalf of the Validity Foundation to the Government of Romania and international bodies concerning recent events in Romania (list of recipients below). On 4 July 2023, the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (Direcția de Investigare a Infracțiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată și Terorism, DIICOT) together with other…
UN Human Rights Committee condemns Bulgaria for seriously violating the rights to life, freedom from torture and ill-treatment, and respect for inherent dignity

in Bulgaria, I’m A Person, My Home, My Choice, Uncategorised

On 15 March 2023, the Human Rights Committee, the United Nations body that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its States parties, issued a decision, so-called views, in communication No. 3171/2018 and condemned Bulgaria for violating the Covenant. The communication was drafted by lawyers of the Bulgarian Network…