Bringing Vietnam’s Laws into Compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

From July 2003 to August 2007, MDRI has documented a broad array of human rights violations against people with disabilities, segregated from society and forced to live out their lives in institutions (all observations in this report are from December 2006 through August 2007 except as noted). Filthy conditions, contagious diseases, lack of medical care and rehabilitation, and a failure to provide oversight renders placement in a Serbian institution life-threatening.

Documents human rights violations perpetrated against approximately 25,000 people detained in Argentina’s psychiatric institutions. More than 80 percent of these people are detained for more than a year— and many are detained for life. Two-thirds of all psychiatric beds are part of the public health system.

This report documents a broad range of atrocious conditions for children with disabilities inside Romania’s institutions. While Romania has reduced its orphanage population and created foster care placements for many children, the reforms have left behind children with disabilities. This report documents serious human rights violations against children with disabilities in an institution for babies and in adult facilities.

Inhuman and degrading conditions of confinement are widespread throughout the Turkish mental health system. This report documents Turkey’s violations of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture (ECPT), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other internationally accepted human rights and disability rights standards.

MDRI and APRODEH find a number of serious human rights violations against people with mental disabilities, including: inhuman and degrading treatment in institutions; discrimination in the provision of health and social services; failure to ensure informed consent; and violations of the right to community integration, among others.

Individuals with disabilities are subject to a broad pattern of discrimination and segregation in almost every part of the world. In most countries, people with disabilities and their families are socially stigmatized, politically marginalized, and economically disadvantaged.

This report documents the treatment of people with mental disabilities in internationally funded public mental health and social services in Kosovo. The report relies on international human rights conventions to which the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and local government authorities in Kosovo have binding obligations, with particular reference to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The report is the product of three fact-finding investigations conducted in Mexico in July 1996, August 1998 and November 1999. During these missions, a team of attorneys and psychiatrists from MORI visited three long-term psychiatric facilities (Ramirez Moreno, Nieto, and Sayago) serving Mexico City and the State of Mexico.

PACE is based on the underlying principle that people recover from what is know as mental illness through voluntary forms of assistance directed by the individuals themselves. The cornerstone of this assistance is the development of trusting relationships, which in turn allows people to (re)capture their dreams and enables them to (re)gain a valued social role.