MDAC News Podcast

  The Mental Disability Advocacy Center is attending the Third Session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the UN headquarters in New York, 1-3 September 2010. This is the annual opportunity for States which have ratified the CRPD to come together to discuss implementation. In addition to attendance by States Parties to the CRPD, COSP is widely attended by representatives of civil society including persons with disabilities and their representative organizations. Many of these NGOs played an active role in the negotiations of the Convention and continue to ensure its effective implementation at domestic levels around the world.   This year's COSP will include sessions in plenary, as well as roundtable discussions and interactive sessions between government and civil society. As a contribution MDAC has produced a variety of policy papers relevant to the COSP agenda including on Article 19 and choices in the community, which is the central theme of the meeting. During the conference MDAC representatives will also be distributing information about MDAC's strategic litigation under the CRPD, its work in Africa, and the right to legal capacity.   MDAC will be blogging from the floor of the meeting, and invites you to follow us at http://www.mdac.info/blog.     On Wednesday 1 September, elections to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be held, to which Gábor Gombos, MDAC Senior Advocacy Officer, has been nominated by the Hungarian government.   On Thursday 2 September, MDAC will host a side session in collaboration with Office of Disability Issues, United Kingdom, and the Independent Monitoring Committee for the Implementation of the CRPD, Austria on “Ensuring meaningful participation of people with intellectual disabilities and psycho-social disabilities in implementing Article 33 of the CRPD”. MDAC has also produced a policy paper on Article 33.   Date: Thursday, 2 September 2010 Time: 16:30 - 18:00 Location: Conference Room A (North Lawn Building), UN Headquarters, New York City   For further information about COSP, including a preliminary agenda, please see the UN Enable website.
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A magyar fogyatékosügyi szervezetek és szövetségeseik hierarchiamentes együttműködési hálózata, a Magyar Fogyatékosügyi Civil Caucus elkészítette a civil társadalom párhuzamos jelentését Fogyatékos személyek jogai vagy fogyatékos jogok? címmel.

A jelentés augusztus 10-én került bemutatásra a Közép-Európai Egyetemen.

A jelentés azt vizsgálja, Magyarország mennyiben tesz eleget azon kötelességeinek, melyeket az ENSZ Fogyatékossággal Élő Személyek Jogairól szóló egyezményének 2007-es ratifikálásával vállalt.

A dokumentum teljes szövege az alábbi linken érhető el: Fogyatékos személyek jogai vagy fogyatékos jogok?

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12 August 2010, Budapest (Hungary) and Sofia (Bulgaria). In a decision dated 29 June 2010, the European Court of Human Rights declared the application of Rusi Stanev v. Bulgaria (application no. 36760/06) admissible. The Fifth Section of the Court, in a procedure reserved for cases that raise issues of great importance, relinquished the case to
the Grand Chamber for judgment on the merits.

Mr. Stanev, who is represented by the Mental Disability Advocacy Center and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, is a man with a psycho-social disability who was partially deprived of his legal capacity and placed into the Pastra Social Care Institution without his consent in 2002. He has been deprived of his liberty since. No evaluation was ever undertaken to determine that Mr. Stanev was not capable of living on his own and no
court has ever reviewed his need to stay there. The director of the institution is the guardian for Mr. Stanev and therefore controls his finances and identity papers as well as deciding his place of residence.

In its admissibility decision, the Court reviewed the laws of 20 Council of Europe member States and found that the vast majority entitle anyone who has been deprived of legal capacity direct access to a court to seek discontinuation of their guardianship.

The Court also reviewed the laws of 18 European States and showed that Bulgaria is out of step with the majority of European States by not providing any judicial review of placement of people in specialized institutions who have been deprived of their legal
capacity.

Rather than living as a member of the community as is his wish, Mr. Stanev is forced to remain in an institution that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment recommended for closure in 2004 due to its horrible conditions, including lack of heat and basic hygiene. Mr. Stanev has no legal means to ask for his liberty under Bulgarian law because he has no legal standing before any Bulgarian court. In his case before the European Court of Human Rights, Mr. Stanev alleges violations of his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, including his right not to be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3, his right to liberty under Article 5, to a fair hearing under Article 6, to respect
for home and private life under Article 8, and to an effective remedy under Article 13.

MDAC hopes that the Court’s recognition of the importance of the factual and legal issues of Mr. Stanev’s case will highlight the problems of deprivation of legal capacity and involuntary, unnecessary institutional placement as extreme and unacceptable deprivations of liberty.

For more information, contact Oliver Lewis, Executive Director at mdac@mdac.info.

MDAC's work in Bulgaria is made possible by a grant from the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, the Open Society Institute - Budapest, and MDAC-UK.

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MDAC has recently moved offices and is now based in:

Hercegprímás utca 11

H-1054 Budapest

Hungary.

Our phone and fax numbers remain the same. Unfortunately, as a result of the move, we had no access to internet, emails and telephone between 18 July and 4 August and have not received any incoming messages which were sent during that time. We kindly ask all messages to be re-sent and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

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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.

According to the Hungarian Constitution persons under plenary or partial guardianship are deprived of their right to vote. The provision excludes an estimated 80,000 adults from political participation, representation and decision-making. The Mental Disability Advocacy Center has for a long time emphasized that such a practice not only reinforces the social isolation of persons with disabilities. A legal prohibition is also contrary to Hungary's international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Council of Europe Recommendation No. R(99)4 on 'incapable adults'.

Today's judgment in the case K.A. v. Hungary by the European Court of Human Rights has the potential to trigger radical changes in the protection of political rights of persons with disabilities. MDAC and Mr K.A.'s legal representative Jan Fiala introduced an application with the Court in 2006 on behalf of the client. Under partial guardianship since 2005, Mr K.A was prevented to exercise his right to vote in the 2006 general elections. The judicial decision placing him under guardianship did not in any way assess his actual capacity to make decisions about political issues, and as such did not serve a legitimate aim. Deprivation of his right to vote was an automatic consequence of the fact that he was placed under guardianship by the virtue of the Constitution.

In its judgment the European Court of Human Rights stated that Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the ECHR does not allow for an absolute bar on voting rights applied to anyone placed under partial guardianship irrespective of a person's actual abilities. Even if the Protocol permits restrictions to ensure that only citizens capable of assessing the consequences of their decisions and making conscious and judicious decisions should participate in public affairs, the Court found that a blanket restriction is not in compliance with the Convention.

MDAC welcomes the Court's willingness to recognize the far-reaching discriminatory consequences such a restriction has on a particularly vulnerable group which faces immense societal prejudices. MDAC urges the Hungarian authorities to give effect to the Court's ruling and end the curtailment of voting rights of persons with disabilities in accordance of international law, including the CRPD, which is legally binding on Hungary.

The Court's judgment means that the legal regulation on the rights of persons with disabilities needs to be reconsidered, including amending the Hungarian Constitution. The ruling should provide further impetus to the somewhat halted reform process currently taking place with regard to the rights and legal status of persons with disabilities in the framework of the adoption of a new Civil Code. For the Court's press release, click here.

 

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