Czech Republic
MDAC and its partner organisation the League of Human Rights (LIGA) jointly work to advance the rights of children and adults with disabilities in the Czech Republic. Over 20,000 Czech children and adults with disabilities continue to be detained in segregated institutions. Once they enter, they are doomed to life-long detention and stigma, they become invisible to society and vulnerable to discrimination and abuse. MDAC is challenging human rights abuses via strategic litigation (taking one case to help many people) and advocacy. Our current work includes issues such as inappropriate use of guardianship, forced psychiatric treatment, the denial of the right to vote and the arbitrary removal of property rights.
MDAC challenges these issues and practices and assists, supports and represents victims in courts. We have already made significant impact in these areas. For example, in December 2007 the Czech Constitutional Court ruled in favour of one of MDAC's clients in a ground-breaking case (click here for the decision in Czech). The case concerned a woman who lived independently in her own apartment. Because she had difficulties in managing her finances she was deprived of her legal capacity and placed under guardianship. As a result, the client was denied her right to privacy and family life, the right to vote, and the right to be treated equally. The deprivation of her legal capacity was criticised by the Constitutional Court as an example of the failure of the Czech judiciary to consider individual and specific abilities of people with disabilities. For more info on MDAC and Liga's guardianship advocacy click here.
Another typical violation of rights of people with mental health disabilities in the Czech Republic is based on a false assumption that a person with a psychiatric diagnosis is dangerous and should automatically be detained in a psychiatric hospital. MDAC and LIGA have successfully challenged this phenomenon. In February 2006, the Regional Court of Brno (a city in the Czech Republic) declared the practice unlawful, on the basis that it breached both domestic and international human rights law. The judgment is having the effect that all psychiatrists in the Czech Republic have a duty to prove dangerousness rather than merely state it as a conclusion. In 2008 MDAC successfully challenged a frequent practice of Czech courts which is to prematurely end reviews of involuntary detention if a person is released from hospital whilst the review proceedings are still pending. This practice meant that a court review of unlawful detention could be easily avoided and no-one is held accountable. Several landmark decisions achieved by MDAC and LIGA have initiated revision of the practice and ensuring greater respect for rights of detainees.
In taking legal action, MDAC and LIGA cooperate with mental health service users who are trained as peer advocates. Peer advocates provide counselling in the institution and support clients. For example, in 2006, Mrs. H. was denied access to her medical records which contained information about her treatment in a psychiatric hospital - treatment which she considered to be inappropriate. Such denial of access to medical records had been repeatedly denounced by the Czech Ombudsman. It was only following litigation by MDAC and LIGA, however that both the first and second instance courts ordered the hospital to provide Mrs. H. with a full photocopy of her documentation. In a subsequent case, MDAC achieved a similar court decision, further confirming that a patient’s right to obtain a photocopy of medical records must not be hampered by the hospital’s requirement of advanced payment for the photocopy costs.
The practice of using restraints and cage beds for those detained in institutions remains widespread in the Czech Republic. This practice has been graphically highlighted in MDAC’s 2003 cage bed report. MDAC with its partners continues to advocate at international, national and community level for an end to this grotesque practice. Read more about MDAC's Stop Cage Beds campaign. MDAC and LIGA also engage in domestic and national advocacy on the rights of people with disabilities. In 2007 MDAC submitted a shadow report to the UN Human Rights Committee. The Committee issued concluding observations and mentioned many of MDAC's concerns.
In 2008, MDAC intensified its work in reforming the Czech system of guardianship. It built a coalition of 13 NGOs that prepared a joint proposal to reform the Civil Code. The proposal contained general principles of the reform and 53 specific comments on the draft Civil Code (you can download the principles in English , the principles in Czech , the textual recommendations to the Civil Code in Czech , and explanatory comments in Czech ). The recommendations were sent to the Ministry of Justice with a view to introducing into the Czech legal system alternatives to guardianship such as assisted decision-making, guardianship without restriction of legal capacity and advanced directives. The proposals called also for tighter regulation of guardians and enhanced control mechanisms over them, including involvement of the person under guardianship in safeguards and supervisory procedures.
In August 2008, MDAC prepared comments on the draft of the new Law on Health Services (click here for comments in Czech) and the draft Law on Specific Health Services (click here for comments in Czech) proposed by the Ministry of Health. The comments aimed to strengthen the protection of patients’ rights in general, and of patients’ deprived of legal capacity and deprived of liberty in particular.
MDAC is lobbying for the Czech government to ratify and implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. See how you can join us in our campaign to ratification by clicking here.
You can help us continue our work in the Czech Republic by making a donation to MDAC.
