Conference in Viena organized by FRA

Conference titled: “Basic rights of people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities”-  FRA

On November 8th Vienna meeting was held on the subject: “Basic rights of people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities”. This project is a survey of the FRA.
Sara McPheeters and Meglena Palamudova as representatives of Karin Dom Fundation  participated in the this meeting.

The survey was conducted in 9 countries from the European Union: Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Germany, Sweden and the UK in four areas:

• Community Living
• Institutional Rights
• Capability
• Access to Justice

At the meeting interested parties provided feedback about the surveys of FRA. There was discussion of the inferences of the comparative project report.

Slavka Kukova – Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, presented a study on Bulgaria, which accurately reflected the situation in the country. The study presents and analyzes the experiences of people with disabilities, based on fieldwork.

Discussed in the meeting were future activities and next steps to improve the rights of people with disabilities.

On the first day November 8, 2011, we focused on the findings related to the rights of people with mental health problems. On the following day we discussed the rights of people with intellectual disabilities.

There were 65 people that participated, divided into 9 working groups. In each group there were participants from different countries. During the presentations we received cases that we discussed. The most heated debates were about people with intellectual disabilities in the institutions.

As expected, Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania were the countries with the most drastic violation of the rights of people with disabilities. The most interesting was that countries like Germany and Sweden were also among the countries with serious violations cases.

The conference was very dynamic and all people participated actively.

Austria, particularly Vienna, is fully accessible to people with disabilities. One can move freely on the sidewalks without additional help and all buildings and vehicles are accessible.