14 March 2016

Why should Bulgaria change its guardianship system?

Last week I was in Bulgaria and with colleagues we met members of the Government, the Parliament, the Ombudsman Office, the Supreme Court and civil society. I focused my visit on the draft law which would abolish guardianship for people with disabilities and introduce supported decision-making. MDAC’s interest is that we have litigated the two leading European cases against Bulgaria, and have been working with NGOs on the law reform process. I was invited to give a speech to an international conference on Friday that argued why all sectors of Bulgarian society should get behind the draft law.
2 July 2013

Challenging abuse and neglect

Last week we launched our summer appeal, asking for your support to enable us to continue to challenge abuses in eastern Europe. Our appeal was launched the while we had several lawyers from Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Moldova in our office. With top anti-torture lawyer Phillippa Kaufman QC, we were training them on how to challenge ill-treatment through the courts. The training was funded through a $7,500 grant from the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. This is significant in itself, because it demonstrates that this ‘mainstream’ human rights fund now fully recognises that people with disabilities can face discriminatory torture and ill-treatment.
30 May 2013

Legal capacity litigation

I wrote yesterday about a conference I went to last week in Serbia. This OliverTalks post summarises my presentation about legal capacity litigation.

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