United Kingdom
MDAC has close connections with the UK. Our sister charity MDAC-UK carries out fundraising for MDAC from UK-based donors. Further, MDAC benefits from the rich legal and academic community, regularly drawing on the expertise of key collaborators. Given the many resource-rich NGOs in the UK, MDAC’s work in the UK focuses on intervening in cases of strategic importance where MDAC’s technical expertise is not duplicated by UK charities.
Current situation
The UK instigated a policy of deinstitutionalisation in the 1980s, yet there are still hundreds of people with disabilities who are compelled to live in institutions due to a lack of sufficient services in the community. This is particularly so in Northern Ireland.
MDAC activities
Strategic litigation: In order to help civil society advocate for the right to live independently and be included in the community with choices equal to others, in March 2011 MDAC drafted a submission for a judicial review case in Northern Ireland outlining the nature of the rights and duties contained in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In February 2011 MDAC wrote an independent report for a case on access to justice taken by barrister Aswini Weereratne of Doughty Street Chambers. In this case (AH v. West London Health Trust) before the UK Upper Tribunal, the appellant was detained in a high security forensic psychiatric hospital and wanted his regular court hearing to be held in public, the regular practice being that they are held in private in the psychiatric hospital. MDAC’s report set out access to justice issues under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as a comparative law review on other European states. Citing MDAC’s report as “very useful”, the Upper Tribunal granted the applicant’s request. Read about the case in this article in “The Independent” newspaper.
Research and Monitoring: MDAC is part of a consortium carrying out research for the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, and the UK is one of the target countries. Reports will come out in 2012.
