Hungary: Concerns Raised about Human Rights of People with Disabilities
Monday, April 25, 2011
At a "constructive dialogue" event held on 20 April 2011 in Budapest, civil society organisations laid out key concerns about human rights of people with disabilities in Hungary
The main issues raised included:- the disability discrimination in the new Hungarian Constitution, which excludes from the right to vote those citizens under guardianship and does not pay attention to multiple discrimination on the ground of age and sexual orientation;
- the lack of coordination and monitoring of disability law and policy;
- the lack of participation of civil society in policy-making;
- the exclusion of people with psycho-social (mental health) disabilities from disability law;
- the fact that there are 67,000 Hungarian adults with disabilities stripped of their legal capacity;
- the social exclusion of more than 24,000 people with disabilities forced to live in long-term institutions;
- and the fact that these institutions are not monitored by an independent inspectorate.
Around thirty participants attended the event, including governmental representatives from two EU Member States, from the Embassy of the United States, and from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. No representatives of the Hungarian government attended. Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC), one of the organisers of the event, will make a summary of the "constructive dialogue" and send it to the relevant authorities.
Source: Mental Disability Advocacy Centre