On 25 August Disabled People Against Cuts co-hosted a webinar with our international allies the European Network for Independent Living (ENIL) on the subject of special investigations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (UNCRPD).
The UK government was the first to be investigated under special powers of the UN Disability Committee when DPAC triggered an inquiry which took place in 2015. Now campaigners in Hungary have followed our example and in April 2020, the UN Disability Committee published a report that finds the Hungarian government is also guilty of rights violations through investment in new institutions for the warehousing of disabled people.
Like the UK government, the Hungarian government has ignored the findings.
We are asking as many of you as possible to use the below template letter to contact the Hungarian government and also the European Union at the email addresses below to let them know the international community is aware of what is happening and to urge them to implement the disability committee’s recommendations.
It is EU money that is being used to build these new institutions. The EU has said that once the institutions are built they can be inspected to check what conditions are like within them. According to the UNCRPD ALL states that are signed up to the Convention should be implementing a policy of de-institutionalisation. Use of EU funds for building more, new institutions goes directly against this. As such we think the EU should withold funding so long as the Hungarian government intend to spend it for this purpose.
Appeals should be addressed to:
Mr. Attila Fülöp
State Secretary for Social Affairs
President of the National Disability Council
E-mail: attila.fulop@emmi.gov.hu
Ms. Ursula Von der Leyen
President of the European Commission
E-mail: ec-president-vdl@ec.europa.eu
Ms. Helena Dalli
Commissioner for Equality
E-mail: cab-dalli-contact@ec.europa.eu
Subject:
Take urgent action to address grave and systematic violations of the rights of persons with disabilities in Hungary
Text of the e-mail:
Dear Mr. Fülöp,
Dear President Von der Leyen,
Dear Commissioner Dalli,
In April 2020, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published a report (CRPD/C/HUN/IR/1) that found Hungary responsible for “grave and systematic violations” of disabled people’s rights. As a disabled person/representative of [name of organisation]/concerned individual, from [name of country], I am writing to ask you to carefully consider the Committee’s recommendations and ensure they are implemented as a matter of priority.
I am particularly concerned about the following findings, in relation to the right to live independently and being included in the community (Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities):
- The fact that there is no legal recognition of the right to live independently and be included in the community and that almost a hundred thousand children, adults and older people live in institutions, out of which disabled people are the second largest group.
- The fact that 55,056 people are under guardianship, and that out of this number, 30,735 individuals have had their legal capacity fully restricted. This means, among other, that they cannot choose where and with whom to live, and are often forced to live in institutions.
- The fact that disabled people are being moved from large- to small-scale institutions, and that the newly built facilities (also called “supported housing” or “group homes”) perpetuate the segregation and social exclusion of disabled people.
- The fact that European Union’s Structural and Investment Funds are still being used to build, renovate and expand large and small institutions, rather than supporting genuine community-based services.
- The fact that there is a severe lack of community-based services that support disabled people’s right to independent living, allowing them choice and control over how they live their lives.
- The fact that personal assistance, as a key tool for independent living, is not sufficiently developed and is available only to a limited number of disabled people.
- The fact that hundreds of children with disabilities are institutionalised, alongside adults, and are overrepresented in segregated education.
It is for these, and many other reasons, that the Committee found Hungary responsible for “grave and systematic” violations of the rights guaranteed by the UN CRPD and set out a series of recommendations.
Among other recommendations, Hungary must ensure that the right to independent living becomes “an individual and directly enforceable right”. To this end, it must “develop a system of support for living independently that includes a range of individualised support and personal assistance for persons with disabilities in the community, outside institutions”. Both Hungary and the European Commission must “reorient the investment of public funds”, including EU funds, from institutions to support in the community, and Hungary must abolish the current practice of moving people from large-scale into small-scale institutions (supported housing) “by removing all elements of institutionalisation”.
I am deeply concerned that Hungary, as a member of the European Union, is responsible for such serious human rights abuses against disabled people. It is equally distressing that funds provided by the European Union were used to fund some of these abuses. I therefore ask you to carefully consider the recommendations made in the UN report and put together a plan of action on how to implement these as a matter of priority, in close consultation with organisations of persons with disabilities.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours sincerely,