Recommendations to the Hungarian government

A.  Community living and choice

1. Adopt an immediate moratorium on new admissions to social care institutions in order to stop filling up vacancies. Instead find alternatives for each person on the waiting list.
2. Amend the Civil Code and the Act on Supported Decision Making to abolish guardianship and introduce real forms of supported decision-making based on relationships of trust and the will and preferences of people who receive such support.
3. Set a clear timetable with a maximum time period of five years for the development of comprehensive and accessible community-based services to ensure that people with mental disabilities can live independently in the community. This should include a focus on providing assistance to families and carers.
4. The deinstitutionalisation of institutions for children with disabilities should be made a priority.
5. Coordinate national and regional action on deinstitutionalisation and the abolition of guardianship through the designated Article 33(1) government focal point, and publish annual reports on progress made.
6. Abandon plans which use Hungarian and EU financing to renovate existing institutions, or to build new ones. Instead use available funding to develop individualised community-based support services to the maximum extent possible.

B.  Access to individualised support services

1. Ensure that people with mental disabilities have equal access to a range of individualised services, including in-home support and assistance, and community mental health teams, which are in reach of all people with mental disabilities across Hungary. This should inform national budgetary priorities, moving resources from institutions to the development of individualised support services.
2. Ensure that all people with mental disabilities and their families can access specialised support and funding, where necessary, to purchase professional, individualised support where such services are not provided by government.

C.  Access to mainstream services

1. Conduct accessibility assessments of mainstream public services (including schools, healthcare and employment support) with a specific view to identifying barriers for people with mental disabilities. The assessments should inform budgeted plans for reform which should be published.
2. Develop, pilot and implement a national ‘access to work’ scheme specifically for people with mental disabilities, in collaboration with civil society and industry leaders. The focus should be on providing access to the mainstream employment market, rather than the provision of sheltered work. Explore regulation and funding for the provision of reasonable accommodations in the workplace.
3. Develop a clear strategy on advancing the right to inclusive education for children with mental disabilities, including the closure of special and residential schools. A specific budget should be established to guarantee the provision of reasonable accommodations for all children with mental disabilities to access mainstream schools.

D.  Transition from institutions to the community

1. The current deinstitutionalisation strategy should urgently be amended to bring it into conformity with the letter and spirit of Article 19, CRPD. The current 30-year timespan should be reduced to five years. The strategy should be amended to include children with mental disabilities and people with mental health issues. The new strategy should incorporate quantitative and qualitative indicators broken down into annual action plans.
2. The new strategy should contain a detailed analysis of the way in which government funding is currently spent on disability-based services (including institutions), and reallocate future funds away from financing institutions and towards funding community-based services. Annual reports should be made public on the way in which public finances are being spent.
3. Develop individualised transition plans for all people with mental disabilities currently living in institutions. The plans must be clearly and explicitly based on the will and preferences of the person concerned. These plans should provide genuine options for living in the community, including in private or family accommodation, identify individualised supports required (and how they will be provided), and should have clear timeframes.

E.  Access to justice, monitoring and public awareness

1. Establish a legal right for people with disabilities to live independently in the community.
2. Ensure that effective and independent complaints mechanisms are made directly available to people with mental disabilities where their right to independent living in the community has been breached. This includes complaints about the failure to provide individualised services or community-living options, and failure to make mainstream services accessible.
3. Ensure that legal remedies are available directly to people with mental disabilities where independent complaints mechanisms have failed. The initiation of legal proceedings must never be determined by guardians or other substitute decision-makers.
4. Collect comprehensive disaggregated data - including statistical and research data - to ensure evidence-based policy and action by government authorities in advancing independent living in the community. The data collected should comply with the requirements of Article 31 of the CRPD and should be published on an annual basis, and identify:
   1. Numbers of people with mental disabilities, including people with intellectual disabilities, people with mental health issues (psycho-social disabilities), age and gender breakdowns, etc.;
   2. The numbers and types of accommodation they live in (institutional and community-based);
   3. Full list of institutions, their size and capacity, breakdown of funding (including funding sources), admissions, and lengths of admissions and discharges;
   4. The types of individualised services available, their geographical scope, funding, and how many people access them; and
   5. Analysis of the numbers of people with mental disabilities who access mainstream services (including education, healthcare and employment assistance), and analysis of the funding of reasonable accommodations.
5. Implement a strategy to raise public awareness about the human rights of people with mental disabilities in conformity with Article 8, CRPD. The strategy must be clear on the concrete steps the government is going to take to reduce stigma and combat discrimination.
6. Crime statistics should be reported annually on the prevalence of hate crime against people with disabilities, the investigation of allegations and their disposal.