Over 1.5 million persons with disabilities in the EU are still living in segregated in residential institutions.
Today, on European Independent Living Day, the European Disability Forum reinforces its call for the EU and national governments to urgently transition away from segregating institutions in favour of independent living and community-based services.
In its position paper on the issue adopted in March 2024, we outlined just why we cannot remain silent when faced with the ongoing institutionalisation of persons with disabilities across Europe, and the shocking reality that in many EU Member States, the numbers of residents in institutions continue to increase.
Segregating institutions deny persons with disabilities of their right to choose how to live, where, and with whom. They can also become settings for severe human rights breaches. Some notable examples of cases that have received media attention include:
- Whorlton Hall, a specialist hospital in the UK, where adults with disabilities were subject to physical and psychological abuse.
- The death of a woman with disabilities in an institution in Czechia at the hands of a staff member.
- Extreme human rights violations were observed in care centres for persons with disabilities in Romania, where residents faced starvation, torture and exploitation.
For every case that receives media attention, countless others remain unknown.
Institutionalised people are shown to face an increased risk of sexual and physical abuse, and severe disciplining, including corporal punishment and restraint, as well as cases of forced sterilisation. Women are particularly at risk of such abuse.
We have also observed, in recent times, just how dangerous institutional settings can be during times of crisis. This was notably the case during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic where some institutions became hotbeds of infection and abuse. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we also saw just how cut off people in institutions were, and how underprepared authorities were to evacuate residents to safety, resulting in countless fatalities.
Therefore, we call on policymakers to acknowledge how damaging segregating institutional settings are for the more than 1.5 million persons with disabilities in the EU still living in them, and to commit once and for all to moving away from this outdated and harmful practice.