Russia

MDAC welcomes Russia’s step towards becoming a State Party to the CRPD and calls on the Russian government to fully implement the Convention and to “take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities” Article 4(1) b) CRPD).

29 March 2011, St. Petersburg and Moscow (Russia) and Budapest (Hungary). The Russian Constitutional Court has ruled that the State cannot institutionalise a person with disabilities if there is no one who can become their guardian in the community.

16 April 2010, Budapest (Hungary), Moscow (Russian Federation). The Mental Disability Advocacy Center has completed a mission to the Russian Federation where it led discussions on ongoing reform efforts in the fields of legal capacity and guardianship in light of Russia’s forthcoming ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

5 March 2010 Moscow (Russia) and Budapest (Hungary). Yesterday the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) and the NGO "Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia" hosted a round table event in Moscow, Russia. The purpose was to strengthen civil society's understanding of the right to legal capacity, and to strategize on how to engage the authorities in law reform.

Moscow, Russia and Budapest, Hungary, 29 May 2009. At a roundtable event held yesterday in Moscow under the auspices of the Russian Ombudsman, NGOs advocated for a root and branch reform of legislation concerning guardianship for adults with disabilities, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The roundtable discussion, co-organised by the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) and the NGO Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia, was attended by parliamentarians, representatives of the Ministry of Health and local guardianship authorities, psychiatrists and human rights and disability NGOs.

St. Petersburg (Russia), Budapest (Hungary) and London (UK) 3 March 2009. On 27 February 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided its first case concerning regulations and procedures for assessing legal capacity, one of the key issues affecting people with mental disabilities and their participation on an equal basis with others in exercising basic human rights.