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Defending Disability Rights in Russia

(By Andrea Shettle, 23.05.08) As many as 125,000 Russians with intellectual or psycho-social disabilities are confined to institutions for life, GulfNews has reported. (See story entitled "Empowering the Impaired") Many also are stripped of all legal capacity. This means they are given no right to speak for themselves, choose their own place of residence, own property, or marry.

A recent legal decision before the European Court of Human Rights may help change these circumstances, says GulfNews. The court case, as it happens, turned on the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). But it also could have easily pointed to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first international, legally-binding human rights instrument to protect people with disabilities. Russia helped draft the CRPD but has not yet signed it. So far, 27 countries have ratified the treaty and another 102 countries have formally signaled interest in ratifying it in the future.

Source: http://ratifynow.org/