News
5 December 2012. Last week the Latvian parliament adopted a new law which abolishes plenary guardianship. This means that the 2,334 people in Latvia who are currently prohibited from taking any decisions about their lives, will have to be reviewed, and it is MDAC’s hope that many of them will have restrictions lifted so that they can make their own decisions.
4 December 2012. Today the US Senate voted no to ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 61 senators voted in favour, and 38 against, but that was less than a two-thirds majority which was needed. The successful campaign peddled lies about the CRPD's impact on abortion, home-schooling, and the role of 'UN bureaucrats'.
22 November 2012, Brno and Budapest. The European Court finds string of human rights violations in Sýkora v. Czech Republic.
17 November 2012, Budapest. In its judgment of 8 November 2012 in the case of ZH v. Hungary, the European Court of Human Rights has clarified that countries need to “undertake reasonable steps to prevent situations likely to result in inhuman and degrading treatment” when detaining people with intellectual disabilities.
15 November 2012, Prague. As regards the rights of persons with disabilities, the Commissioner stresses the need to overhaul and transform psychiatric care in the Czech Republic. “Promoting de-institutionalisation, fully protecting persons with disabilities from involuntary hospitalisation, and eliminating ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty are priority tasks”.
19 October 2012, Budapest and Brno. The European Court of Human Rights yesterday issued a landmark judgment distinguishing treatment from torture in a case involving use of restraints on a person with a psycho-social disability, Bureš v. Czech Republic. MDAC represented the applicant in both domestic proceedings and at the ECtHR.
18 October 2012. Oliver Lewis, MDAC Executive Director, was a keynote speaker this week at the 2nd World Congress on Adult Guardianship, which took place on Monday and Tuesday in Melbourne, Australia.
17 October 2012, Budapest. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) yesterday delivered its judgment in the case of Kedzior v. Poland, in which the applicant was represented by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw. The Mental Disability Advocacy Center submitted an independent third party intervention in the case.
15 October 2012. The Mental Disability Advocacy Center has been actively involved in legal capacity law reform related advocacy activities in the Central and Eastern European Region in the last three weeks. This information bulletin focuses on developments in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
Budapest 8 October 2012. The Mental Disability Advocacy Center and the Disability Rights Center call on the Hungarian government to overhaul the system in which people can be detained and forcibly treated with psychiatric medication. We make this request based on (1) the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which last month recommended that Hungary should, “ensure that health care services, including all mental health care services, are based on the free and informed consent of the person concerned.” And (2) because of a recent judgment by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).