News

3 November 2009, Sofia, Bulgaria and Budapest, Hungary. It is one year since Europe’s highest social rights body found that Bulgaria had violated international law by discriminating against children with disabilities in not providing them with an education.

2 November 2009. Budapest, Hungary; Geneva, Switzerland; and Moscow, Russia. The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) has called on Russia to reform its guardianship laws and to ensure human rights for people with disabilities. Its Concluding Observations on Russia are the HRC's most comprehensive analysis to date, of how the right to legal capacity is a concern under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Budapest, 22 September 2009. Members of the Hungarian Parliament voted for a new Civil Code yesterday evening. In doing so they ensured that Hungary becomes the first country in the world to reform its legal capacity legislation in line with its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Budapest, 15 September 2009. MDAC endorses the "Viewpoint" published yesterday by Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in which he said that the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities across Europe "are still not taken seriously enough", and called on governments not merely to plan for action, but to take action.

MDAC is blogging the UN Convention of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Click here to see the blog.

2 June 2009. In the recent case of Glor v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights has for the first time (1) found a violation of the right to non-discrimination on the basis of the applicant’s disability, (2) referred to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and (3) used the human rights concept of “reasonable accommodation”.


Moscow, Russia and Budapest, Hungary, 29 May 2009. At a roundtable event held yesterday in Moscow under the auspices of the Russian Ombudsman, NGOs advocated for a root and branch reform of legislation concerning guardianship for adults with disabilities, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.



The roundtable discussion, co-organised by the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) and the NGO Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia, was attended by parliamentarians, representatives of the Ministry of Health and local guardianship authorities, psychiatrists and human rights and disability NGOs.

18 May 2009. The Egyptian Parliament adopted in late April 2009 a new law entitled the “Law for the Care of Mental Patients”. Mental health law reform is particularly timely in Egypt given the country’s ratification in April 2008 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which includes rights provisions for persons with mental health disabilities.  


23 December 2008. MDAC's client wins guardianship case in Bulgarian Supreme Court and declares "freedom is possible". MDAC is featured in New York Times article on guardianship. It's a busy end to a busy year.

Geneva, Sofia & Budapest, 3 December 2008. The World Organisation Against Torture, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and the Mental Disability Advocacy Center call on the Bulgarian Parliament to legislate to stop human rights violations of persons with mental disabilities.


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