New report warns that a proposed EU law might exacerbate the issue
Our 8th European Human Rights report, released today, highlights that no EU country fully protects persons with disabilities from losing their right to make decisions – and this enables violence and abuse against persons with disabilities. The report also warns that the proposed EU Regulation on cross-border protection of adults will aggravate the issue if it’s approved in its current form. This Regulation would lead to adults who move to another EU country still being subject to more restrictive measures from their country of origin, even if more progressive policies are in place.
The report reveals how regressive policies contribute to persons with disabilities suffering from physical, emotional and sexual violence with little chance of escape or support. These include egregious abuse such as being subject to repeated rape, electroshock therapy and forced sterilisation, with little possibility for help and redress.
A woman in Bulgaria revealed that
(…) they talked to my mother and she gave consent and signed the document but nobody had explained to me what exactly electroconvulsive therapy is like. Initially I thought it was anaesthesia which helps the medication to reach all parts of the body, but after that I realised it is not this.
Deprivation of legal capacity can lead directly to forced sterilisation, with Rosario Ruiz testifying that she was threatened with separation from her partner if she did not undergo the surgery. Despite Ruiz’s evident desire to be a mother, her parents had the legal power to take away her reproductive rights
The report singles out 12 countries that have the worst policies: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Poland. These countries still allow for full guardianship and replacement of decision-making autonomy. It calls on countries to move to supported decision-making systems and to ban and criminalise coercive practices such as forced sterilisations and forced treatment. It notes that some countries, such as Ireland, have been moving in the right direction by reforming their legal frameworks to allow more autonomy.
Tamara Byrne, a self-advocate and member of EDF’s Youth Committee, said:
If you disagree with my choices, that doesn’t mean you can take my choice away from me, in the same way that I cannot tell you what to do with your life. This is not right and needs to be changed as soon as possible.
Related documents
- European Human Rights Report Issue 8 – Legal capacity: Personal choice and control
- European Disability Forum’s campaign page on “Protection of Adults Across Borders”
- European Disability Forum’s campaign page on criminalising Forced Sterilisation in the European Union.
- Campaign page on stopping coercion in mental health.
Additional Information
Testimonials in full:
Woman, 29, Bulgaria
“I had two crises – the first in 2000, the second in 2005. Then nobody asked me, they talked to my mother and she gave consent and signed the document but nobody had explained to me what exactly electroconvulsive therapy is like. Initially I thought it was anaesthesia which helps the medication to reach all parts of the body, but after that I realised it is not this.”. Source: Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, “Involuntary placement and involuntary treatment of persons with mental health problems”, 2012.
Man, 55, Greece
“They probably injected me in the hand but I don’t remember now and I fell immediately asleep; my eyes closed. Right after they did electric shocks without me knowing about it. I found out later. They ruined my life.”. Source: Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, “Involuntary placement and involuntary treatment of persons with mental health problems”, 2012.
Rosario Ruiz
A victim of forced sterilisation, Rosario Ruiz, was threatened with separation from her partner if she did not undergo the surgery. Ruiz reflects on the surgery, saying, “What have they done with my life? Am I useless? Can everyone be a mother except me? Since then, I feel empty every day of my life.” Despite Ruiz’s evident desire to be a mother, her parents had the legal power to take away her reproductive rights. Source: Euronews, “I see the scar and I want to die’: Why the EU allows sterilisation of women with disabilities”, 5 June 2023.
Institutionalisation and abuse in Poland
“My child’s nightmare lasted around a year and a half. She was beaten and locked in a caged bed, sometimes for the entire day or even two days.”
This is how a mother described the ordeal her daughter Kasia (pseudonym) went through in a residential institution for girls and women with intellectual disabilities in Jordanów, a small town in southern Poland. Having entered two months before her 18th birthday, when Kasia was removed from the institution almost two years later, her family said she was barely able to speak or walk, a side effect of the medication she was given. Source: Report: Human Rights Watch, “Horror Behind Closed Doors of Polish Residential Institution – Women and Girls with Intellectual Disabilities Beaten, Tied, and Locked in Caged Bed”, June 2022
Institutionalisation and forced sterilisation in Austria
Institutionalisation can also make women more vulnerable to sterilisation, as in the case of a 34‑year‑old woman from Tyrol (Austria). In 2009, she was forced to sign the consent form for her tubal ligation without reading the terms of the surgery. Further, the institution threatened her with expulsion from their care if she did not have the surgery. Unable to challenge their authority and dependent on their care, she was sterilised. Reflecting on the surgery, she said “I no longer had trust in people, I was so disappointed and so hurt. I don’t feel like a woman anymore.”
Source: Zwangssterilisationen in Österreich, ORF, 8 April 2017
Detention in psychiatric hospital in Bulgaria: the Stanev v. Bulgaria case
Mr. Stanev, a man with a psychosocial disability, was deprived of his legal capacity and placed under partial guardianship of a government worker at the request of his relatives. The guardian placed him in an institution against his will where he was subjected to poor living conditions and physical violence. Mr. Stanev had no ability to challenge this situation as he could not initiate any legal proceedings, including a proceeding to have his guardianship lifted, without his guardian’s consent. The Court found that Mr. Stanev had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty, subject to degrading treatment, and denied the right to a fair trial. Significantly, it also recognised that an individual’s legal capacity is vital for the exercise of all human rights and fundamental freedoms
Contacts
André Félix
Communications Coordinator
Marine Uldry
Human Rights Policy Coordinator