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Begin New Search Topic Disability Publishing Institution Open Society Foundations

1. Community, Not Confinement

Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms the rights of all people to live in their communities. Yet between 2007 and 2013, EU member states invested millions of euros of EU structural funds into institutions that confine and segregate people living with disabilities. Now, although the 2014–2020 round of structural funds requires member states to introduce domestic deinstitutionalization measues, the danger remains that EU investments in institutions will continue. The European Commission has a responsibility to ensure the rights of Europeans with disabilities and the proper direction of EU investments. Community, Not Confinement examines EU law and policy governing the use of structural funds, and EU and state responsibilities to human rights obligations under international and EU law. This report also recommends several steps the commission should take, including providing clear guidance to member states that projects selected for the use of structural funds must comply with the CRPD; verifying that such programming aligns with the CRPD and supports independent living; and funding civil society to monitor member states’ investments and inform the commission of findings.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, United Nations, Law, Disability, Community, Political Rights, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Europe

2. Ethnic Origin and Disability Data Collection in Europe: Measuring Inequality—Combating Discrimination

Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The report Ethnic Origin and Disability Data Collection in Europe: Measuring Inequality—Combating Discrimination is published within the framework of the Equality Data Initiative, a project launched by the Open Society Foundations in collaboration with the Migration Policy Group and the European Network Against Racism to increase awareness within the European Union for the need to collect reliable data for groups at risk of discrimination. The report challenges the commonly held view in Europe that the collection of disability and ethnic data is categorically prohibited. It voices the necessity to involve the affected communities in the process of defining best practices and to respect binding core principles of data collection such as self-identification of the data subject and consent-based, voluntary, and anonymized data collection. The focus of the research is on Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, and Sweden in the field of public education and on France in the field of public employment. Most of these EU member states collect data about their citizens in one or other way. However—as the report suggests—their methods lead to results that are either inaccurate or unreliable. The report makes recommendations for action at both the national and EU levels in order to achieve effective change in the field of equality data and to use data to promote equal treatment. Advocacy and strategic litigation are needed to steer national debates away from taboos, and question unlawful, harmful, or simply unsuitable data collection practices, and to call for the inclusion of disability and ethnic minority communities in the process. The European Commission and other EU institutions can provide guidance in this process by issuing recommendations and guidelines on equality data collection.
Topic:
Migration, Science and Technology, European Union, Citizenship, Discrimination, Disability, Data, Digital Policy, and Migrant Workers
Political Geography:
Europe

3. Sterilization of Women and Girls with Disabilities

Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
In many parts of the world, women rely on access to a range of methods to control their fertility, including voluntary sterilization. However, too often, sterilization is not a choice. Women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to forced sterilizations performed under the auspices of legitimate medical care. The practice of forced sterilization is part of a broader pattern of denial of the human rights of women and girls with disabilities. This denial also includes systematic exclusion from comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care, limited voluntary contraceptive choices, a focus on menstrual suppression, poorly-managed pregnancy and birth, involuntary abortion, and the denial of rights to parenting. These practices are framed within traditional social attitudes that characterize disability as a personal tragedy or a matter for medical management and rehabilitation. The difficulty some women with disabilities may have in understanding or communicating what was done to them increases their vulnerability to forced sterilization. A further aggravating factor is the widespread practice of legal guardians or others making life-altering decisions for persons with disabilities, including consenting to sterilization on their behalf. This briefing paper, produced as part of the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, outlines various international human rights standards that prohibit forced sterilization. It also offers several recommendations for improving laws, policies, and professional guidelines governing sterilization practices.
Topic:
Torture, Law, Health Care Policy, Women, Disability, Sexual Violence, Medicine, Sexual Health, and Girls
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Access to Education and Employment

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Produced by the Open Society EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program and Mental Health Initiative, Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Access to Education and Employment is a series of 12 country reports on the rights of people with intellectual disabilities in Europe. The reports monitor the degree to which existing international standards and national legislation are heeded and applied. Each report includes specific policy recommendations targeting both domestic and international decisionmakers.
Topic:
Human Rights, Disability, Mental Health, and Domestic Policy
Political Geography:
Greece, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, and Latvia