5 September 2013

The Romanian government killed a young man with disabilities. Will it get away with it on a technicality?

OliverTalks - Our Executive Director explains how the Romanian government is attempting to avoid accountability for the death of Valentin Câmpeanu in a psychiatric institution.
3 September 2013

Why should the United States ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities?

3 September 2013, Budapest. In his latest post, our Executive Director gives his alternative to Secretary of State John Kerry's speech.
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.
21 June 2013

Older people’s decisional segregation

One of the human rights violations which older people experience is how their wishes are overridden by others. The right to legal capacity is a core provision in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and actions are being taken to stop infringements of autonomy. A new treaty is being drafted to protect older people’s rights.
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.
29 May 2013

Serbian judges sentence 3,500 people to civil death each year

Last Tuesday I participated in the first day of a two-day conference in Belgrade, about legal capacity and community living, organised by various NGO partners in the “Person” project, which is funded by the European Commission (aka European taxpayers).
7 May 2013

Corporates beware

Blind people can’t access all ATMs in Hungary. This latest case at the UN is a slap in the face for wealthy companies who can’t be bothered to make their services accessible. And it’s a wake-up call for governments that let companies discriminate.

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