Indicator 1(D): Does the law respect the choices of people with disabilities about where and with whom they live and which services they receive?
Conclusion:
The law does not recognise the choices of people with mental disabilities placed under full or partial guardianship.
Explanation:
Article 35 of the Bulgarian Constitution provides that every person is entitled to choose his or her place of living. However, if a person is placed under guardianship, it is the guardian who decides where the person must live.[25] Where a person has been placed under partial guardianship, they must have the consent of their guardian to validate choices about where and with whom they live.[26] At present, people with mental disabilities who are placed under full or partial guardianship are not recognised as persons before the law and their choices are not recognised as legally valid decisions. Almost 7,000 people with mental disabilities are under guardianship in Bulgaria, the majority under full or plenary guardianship.[27]
[25] Article 163, para 1 of the Bulgarian Family Code. According to this article, a person placed under plenary guardianship is required to live with his or her guardian unless any important reason bars it. According to paragraph 2 of the same article, when a person under plenary guardianship escapes from the place of residence determined for him or her, the guardian may ask the district court to bring the person back after the court hears the person. The court decision can be appealed before a regional court, but the appeal does not preclude implementation of the decision. The person with a disability can be brought back according to an administrative order.
[26] Article 5, paragraph 3 in relation to Article 4, paragraph 2 of the Bulgarian Persons and Family Act. According to Article 167 of the Family Code, a person under partial guardianship lives with his or her guardian unless he or she is placed elsewhere in a lawful manner.
[27] Mental Disability Advocacy Center, Legal Capacity in Europe, (Budapest: MDAC, 2013), 44-6, available at: http://mdac.org/sites/mdac.info/files/legal_capacity_in_europe.pdf (last accessed: 23 September 2014).