Tag: ill-treatment
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Bulgarian court finds guardian responsible for harm of forced institutionalisation
Georgi Tsenov spent most of his life in horrible conditions in an institution, fighting to be able to make choices about his own life. Now he has finally achieved recognition by the State for the ill-treatment he suffered over decades. Sofia City Court affirmed that the guardianship authority caused him harm by failing to prevent…
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Statement on abuse uncovered in another Hungarian disability institution
Validity expresses our deepest concern about the ill-treatment of residents of an institution for persons with disabilities in Mozsgó, which was recently reported by the Hungarian Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. The Commissioner investigated following a complaint from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), a national human rights NGO. According to the report, the complaint filed against the…
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Hungary must end rights abuses against persons with disabilities and stop targeting NGOs, says UN human rights committee
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has expressed concern about widespread human rights violations against persons with disabilities in Hungary. The Committee, which is the UN’s authoritative body overseeing global implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), noted that large number of persons with disabilities in Hungary continue to be institutionalised,…
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Preventing Child Abuse in Institutions
Robert Martin, CRPD Committee Member, talks institutionalistion, ill-treatment and human rights. Earlier this month, Validity (formerly MDAC) published a first-of-its-kind monitoring methodology for identifying and preventing abuse of children with mental disabilities in institutions – the CHARM Toolkit. The Toolkit was the product of a two-year, EC-funded project carried out together with our partners, GIP-Sofia…
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Straightjackets and Seclusion
Validity (formerly MDAC) is today calling for the immediate closure of state-run institutions for people with disabilities in Hungary after an investigation of one large scale institution discovered children and adults who had been tortured and abused, including being tied to beds and restrained with makeshift straitjackets. One three-year-old was found in a caged bed,…
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A tribute to Rusi Stanev
We would like to share a few words on hearing the news that our dear client, collaborator, friend and hero Rusi Stanev has died, at the age of 61. Our hearts go out to people whose lives were touched by Rusi, to the Bulgarian disability rights movement, and to our colleagues who have kindly shared…
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Poland: Government admits failure to investigate rape of man with intellectual disabilities
Peter* has intellectual disabilities and lives in Poland. Ten years ago he was 33, and one day came home from attending a day-care centre and told his mother that he had been raped by a therapist at the centre and that he had been beaten with a belt. They went to the police but investigators…
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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,…