On 2 November 2009 the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) called on Russia to reform its guardianship laws and to ensure human rights for people with disabilities. Its Concluding Observations on Russia are the HRC's most comprehensive analysis to date, of how the right to legal capacity is a concern under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This followed a shadow report sent by MDAC to the Committee in advance of its session on the Russia's implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
MDAC’s work in Russia during 2010 concentrates on ratification and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Russia signed in 2008. MDAC's project is financed by the Civil Rights Defenders and by the UK Government's Strategic Programme Fund. You can contribute to MDAC's work in Russia directly.
The project focuses on reforming the guardianship system, to bring it in line with the CRPD. MDAC released a report on guardianship in 2008 and in MDAC now works with NGOs to advocate for reform. MDAC is currently helping several people with their cases. Mr Shtukaturov's case is typical. He was deprived of legal capacity in December 2004, by a St. Petersburg court. He however, knew nothing about, and did not participate in, the court process. He only became aware of this judgment by accident in November 2005 at which time the 10-day time limitation period for appealing the court decision had long expired. A few days later he was detained in a psychiatric hospital. During his six-month detention he repeatedly asked for a visit from his attorney, MDAC’s legal monitor. His requests and similar requests of his attorney were repeatedly rejected. During his detention in the hospital, Mr S was forced to receive high doses of psychiatric medication. The dosage of his medication was considerably increased immediately after the Russian authorities were informed about his application to the European Court of Human Rights. While in the hospital he continued to be kept incommunicado apart from visits by his mother/guardian and denied recreation.
- In March 2008 the European Court of Human Rights found violations of Articles 5, 6, 8 and 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Read an information bulletin about this case here. По-русски
- In February 2009 in the same case the Russian Constitutional Court struck down several provisions of the Russian Civil Code relating to guardianship. Read an information bulletin about this case here.
- In May 2009 MDAC held a roundtable event under the auspices of the Russian Ombudsman, who said that the rights of persons under guardianship are the worst protected out of all vulnerable groups. Read an information bulletin about this event here.
Psychiatry in Russia has a chequered history, with the Soviet Psychiatric Association having been dismissed from the World Psychiatric Association. The Soviet medical approach to mental illness still prevails, as does social stigma against those labelled with a diagnosis of a mental illness. Added to this is the difficulty in accessing institutions which means that what occurs behind their closed doors remains hidden. National statistics of institutionalised people in Russia are not available. We estimate however that many hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities are institutionalised for life. Mental health and intellectual disability issues are low priority for legislators, and increasingly restrictive laws on the activities of non-governmental organisations are stifling civil society. Added to this, judges are highly deferential to psychiatrists, which means that decisions on detention and legal capacity are frequently based on poorly reasoned psychiatric opinions. The bureaucracy faced by people with disabilities results directly in their needs being unrecognised and therefore unmet.
MDAC's work in Russia is funded by the Civil Rights Defenders (former Swedish Helsinki Committee) and the Human Rights and Democracy Strategic Programme Fund of the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
