Invisible people

Here is a thought for the old year's end: we do not know how lucky we are. After traipsing back from a snarl-inducing day '“ shouted at by small fat judge, client unnecessarily imprisoned, tiny fees, late trains and smelly tubes '“ and well into heavy whining mode as a result, I read an email which could have been headed 'Reality check for lucky Brit lawyers', but was rather politer than that.

It was from the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, (MDAC) a charity and NGO based in Budapest which I and my chambers support '“ and this column is an appeal that you support them too.

MDAC works in East Europe generally and Central Asia, using advocacy, law and campaigning to reduce human rights violations for people with psycho-social difficulties (mental disorder for example) and learning difficulties. They are the only NGO in the world which uses multinational strategic litigation on the rights of persons with disabilities.

The email announced that on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities '“ 3 December for those who, like me, missed it '“ MDAC together with the Bulgarian Helsinki committee and the World Organisation Against Torture had begun another initiative to radicalise the Bulgarian government's treatment of people with mental disability.

Soul-destroying institutions

Put crudely, the present system combines deprivation of legal rights and soul-destroying institutional care. Under the present Bulgarian Family Code, anyone with psycho-social problems or learning difficulties can be declared legally incapable of making their own decisions and become subject to a 'guardianship' regime that is ill regulated and unmonitored.

In a country where community care does not exist, and where stigmatisation of mental health difficulty runs rife, those under guardianship are effectively sentenced to long terms in institutional care.

Although guardianship is a legal procedure with a technical right to be represented, there is no legal aid system and no ready access to lawyers in any event: 'ill regulated' in this context does not mean that there might be occasional delays in access to a court or less-than-generous funds for trained lawyers on a mental health panel '“ it means unequal before the law. 'Guardianship' does not mean a person acting with you in your best interests, overseen by a court, but the removal of your legal autonomy and civil rights, including your right to manage your finances, to decide where to live, to marry, to work and '“ further exacerbating the political invisibility of people with disabilities '“ to vote.

And an unmonitored guardianship system means just that '“ a system where your guardian can be the director of the institution with a financial interest in keeping you there, or an estranged family member who now has the legal rights over your house '“ and who can place you in an institution without further court approval or review.

No witnesses to the abuse