Category: Countries
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Czech Constitutional Court Rules in Landmark Decision on Inclusive Education and Access to Justice
On 4 December 2023, in a seminal ruling, the Constitutional Court of Czechia found that a child with disabilities had been unconstitutionally denied access to education and a fair trial due to the failure of the lower courts to adequately address the discrimination claims of a child with autism. The case started in 2015, and…
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Mexico: Validity intervenes before the National Supreme Court of Justice to argue coercive psychiatric treatment violates CRPD
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…
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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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Czechia must adopt concrete steps towards deinstitutionalisation to prevent inherent risk of ill-treatment in institutions – Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights says
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…
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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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UKRAINE RECOVERY: Humanitarian Donors’ Obligations to Ensure Inclusion, Not Institutions for Persons with Disabilities
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…
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Romania: Victims of Ilfov Must Receive Reparations and Redress – Public Letter of Concern to the Romanian Government and International Community
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…
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UN Human Rights Committee condemns Bulgaria for seriously violating the rights to life, freedom from torture and ill-treatment, and respect for inherent dignity
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…