Validity Foundation - Mental Disability Advocacy Centre

Category: My Home, My Choice

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.

István Cservenka and Sándor Gurbai at the UNVFVT

Representing Victims of Torture with Disabilities

A key cross-cutting objective for Validity is to contribute to the global push to end all forms of torture and ill-treatment faced by persons with disabilities. In this context, Validity works with partners to represent numerous victims with disabilities in Europe and Africa, with the strategic goals of ending… Read More

Slovak policement standing in uniform

Romani man wins unlawful detention case against Slovak Police

Bratislava, Brussels, Budapest, 4 May 2022: The Bratislava I District Court have ruled in favour of a 30-year-old Romani man with an intellectual disability who was illegally held in police custody for four weeks in 2013. The Court, in its first instance judgment, awarded the man from Moldava… Read More

Photo of  Budapest Environs Regional Court 

Hungary: Budapest Court confirms Government must release the names of public guardians on request 

Topház Social Care Institution became widely known after Validity revealed the inhumane and horrific treatment of its residents in a 2017 report. 220 residents were subject to torture and ill-treatment in Topház. Children as well as adult residents were put in metal cage beds, routinely chemically and/or physically restrained, were underweight, and physically, mentally and emotionally neglected.   Topház is a closed… Read More

Cover page of Report of Deinstitutionalisation and Life in the Community in Bulgaria

Investigating Bulgaria’s failed approach to deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities – new report

Validity, with the contribution of Bulgarian experts including persons with disabilities, has launched a globally relevant new report entitled “Deinstituionalisation and life in the community in Bulgaria“. The report points out that the Bulgarian deinstitutionalisation (DI) process has failed thousands of children and adults with disabilities in the country, condemning… Read More