The Ombudsperson recommends amending the Electoral Code in order to secure the right to vote to the persons deprived of the legal capacity, and approving a package of laws to ensure the implementation of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Statements about thiswere made within the press conference held by the Ombudsperson, MihailCotorobai, and the member of the Council of Experts under the Ombudsperson’s Office, Roman Banari. The press conference was organised on the World Mental Health Day, which has been celebrated since October 10, 1992, upon the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health and taken over by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

During the event, it was mentioned that, although Moldova ratified six years ago the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and committed to implement the provisions of this instrument, which is important for all people with disabilities, there still has not been a significant development in terms of ensuring the observance of the rights of persons with psychosocial/mental impairments.  

Persons with mental disabilities continue to face stigma, isolation, and discrimination due to disability, which are frequently aggravated by stereotypes and prejudice. If declared incapable, persons with mental disabilities are deprived of the rights which are indispensable to humans, such as the right of getting married, taking care of their own children, the right to vote, and the right of access to justice. Without the consent of the respective individuals, without having talked to them, decisions are made, which have very serious consequences for the latter, such as the institutionalisation of such peopleor the sale of their property.

According to the Ombudsperson, the state has not made sufficient efforts to improve the life of these people and to adjust the legislation, the policies and practices to the international requirements and standards.

These conclusions are underlain by the information gathered within the monitoring visits at the psychiatry and psycho-neurological hospitals in the country, which reveal a number of problems related to the fulfilment of the human rights for these categories of people.

Community programs to support persons with mental disabilities are very weak; responsibility for community services is being placed on the local public authorities. Most often they blame it on the insufficient financial resources to develop community social services.

The UN Committee for the rights of persons with disabilities highlights that, in order to achieve equal recognition of the legal capacities in all aspects of life, it is important to recognise the legal capacity of the persons with disabilities in the public and political life. The capacity of the individual making the decision may not be used to justify the exclusion of the persons with disabilities from exercising their political rights, including their right to vote.

The speakers also acknowledged the fact that through Law No. 201, published in the Official Gazette on 09.09.2016, the Parliament contributes to ensuring social inclusion of persons with disabilities in Moldova, at the same time strengthening the mechanism of protection and fulfilment of the rights of persons with disabilities. However, they expressed regret that the proposal for amendment the Elections Code, which would have provided the persons with mental disabilities the right to vote, was excluded from the draft law.

MihailCotorobai announced that he has recently sent, a letter to the Parliament, jointly with the members of the Council of Experts under the Ombudsperson’s Office, where it was recommended to start amending the Elections Code to provide the right to vote to the persons declared legally incapable, as well to developand approve a package of laws that would ensure the implementation of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

It was highlighted that, European Court for Human Rights has already convicted a number of countriesfor their failure to observe the rights of persons with mental disabilities, namely in the cases ofNataliyaMikhaylenko vs. Ukraine; Stanev vs. Bulgaria; Shtukaturov vs. Russia.

The ombudsman reminded that the Constitutional Court is currently examining a petition of the Ombudsperson, requesting the control of the constitutionality of some provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, which sets out that persons declared legally incapable may not exercise their right to free access to justice. The petition relates to a series of interconnected elements and principles of constitutional value, such as the right of free access to justice, the equality principle and the limit of restricting the rights and freedoms of individuals, in the light of state’s primary obligation to ensure the respect of and protection of the individual.

It was also mentioned that Article 33 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides for the national monitoring of the implementation of the Convention.  In this context, the speakers reminded that, so far, no independent mechanism for promoting, protecting, and monitoring the implementation of the Convention has been officially established, in line with paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 33 of the Convention. According to some data, there are around four thousand persons with intellectual and mental impairmentsin Moldova, placed in residential institutions. Recent studies by nongovernmental human rights organisations mention that about 30% of the persons confined in psycho-neurological institutions, have legal capacity and could be integrated in the communities where they come from. Every year about 300 cases for legal capacity deprivation are filed to courts.

 10.10.2016