strategic litigation

MDAC held a three-day workshop on litigating the rights of persons with psycho-social and intellectual disabilities in Kampala, Uganda from 2-4 February.  The need to build capacity of lawyers on the rights of people with psycho-social disabilities and people with intellectual disabilities has always been highlighted in MDAC’s discussions with organisations of persons with disabilities and some lawyers in African countries.

17 January 2012, Budapest and Sofia. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today delivered a landmark victory for the rights of persons with psycho-social disabilities and intellectual disabilities in the case of Stanev v. Bulgaria. The Mental Disability Advocacy Center and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee represented Mr. Stanev in his attempts to bring domestic proceedings and at the ECtHR.

24 October 2011, Geneva and Budapest. “Individual communications procedures” are mechanisms for individuals to being their cases to United Nations (UN) treaty bodies where they believe their human rights have been violated and where they have already gone through a country’s legal system. Such cases can play a critical and constructive role in closing gap  between human rights rhetoric and reality and can enhance the promotion, protection and fulfillment of human rights. They can assist States to properly understand and discharge their human rights obligations.

A public mental health review hearing will be held on the application of Albert Haines, who is detained at Broadmoor Hospital, on 27-28 September at the Field House in London.  Mr. Haines was granted the right to have his hearing held in public by a groundbreaking decision of the Upper Tribunal in February 2011.

Strasbourg, 24 August 2011

A coalition of human rights groups is speaking out against the practice of forced sterilisation of women with mental disabilities in France.

Moscow (Russia) and Budapest (Hungary), 22 April 2011. Five years and five months after MDAC filed a case to test the Russian Federation’s guardianship system, the Russian government has plugged the gaps revealed by strategic litigation. The recent law reform provides procedural safeguards to people with disabilities who find themselves trapped in Russia’s still-archaic guardianship system. The Mental Disability Advocacy Center extends its congratulations to Russian policy-makers and civil society, and encourages further action.

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.

Budapest, 10 December 2010. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights will hold a hearing in the case of Stanev v. Bulgaria (application no. 36760/06) on 9 February 2011.  Information from the Court regarding the hearing and the case is available here

Budapest (Hungary) and Strasbourg (France), 20 May 2010. Persons with disabilities placed under guardianship are one of the most vulnerable groups of Hungarian society. One reason for their exclusion is that they are automatically deprived of their basic right to participate in political decision-making. Today, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this blanket disenfranchisement is contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights.