Hungary replies to the list of issues raised by the CRPD Committee

The Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities explains what rights people with disabilities have. A country called Hungary promised to make sure people with disabilities have these rights. Now the government has to prove that this really happens. The government answered some questions to explain the rights of people with disabilities in Hungary.

 

The government of Hungary has replied to the list of issues raised by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). These issues are in connection with the consideration of the initial report of Hungary on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The report will be deliberated at the 8th session of the Committee that will take place on September 17-28, 2012.

The issues presented by the CRPD committee to the Hungarian government concerned articles 1 to 33 of the Convention and were presented as questions, divided into four sections:

• Purpose and general obligations (arts. 1-4)
• Specific rights (arts. 9, 11, 12, 14-17, 19, 21, 23-25, 27-29)
• Special situation of women and children living with disabilities Special obligations

The government failed to provide disaggragated data requested by the CRPD under ‘special obligations’, arguing that the last census took place at the end of 2011 and the information on disability was still not available. On accessibility of public services, for instance, the Hungarian government admitted having “no substantive information at the moment about exactly where and what type of accessibility is ensured to public services” and pledged to launch a governmental and local government disability assessment, results of which shall be available by the end of the year.

Regarding the access to rights, the draft Civil Code, currently in the process of codification, will still allow for ‘full or partial limitation’ of legal capacity by a court decision and the provisions related to supported decision-making are rather vague.

While the automatic deprivation of voting rights of persons under guardianship was abolished following the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Kiss v. Hungary, it will still be possible to disenfranchise a person based on the individual assessment of their ‘ability to act’. At the same time, the legislation continues to allow for the conduct of medical interventions such as sterilization without the informed consent of the person under guardianship.

Lack of specific policies has been apparent in relation to women and children with disabilities where the government seems to be relying on general gender and children rights protection mechanisms.

The Hungarian Disability Caucus, a non-hierarchic network of disability organisations shadowing the official reporting to the CRPD Committee, has repeatedly raised its concerns regarding the (non-)compliance of the government with the human rights obligations arising from the UN Convention.

The list of issues presented by the network in April 2012 highlights the dumping of the rights of persons with disabilities following the comprehensive legal reform and government’s reluctance to involve organisations of persons with disabilities in the implementation of the Convention.

 

Background

According to the Article 35 of the UN Convention, State Parties have to submit a report on the measures taken to implement the rights specified in the Convention two years after its  entry into force in the particular State.

The Convention was ratified by Hungary on 20 July 2007 and it became binding when the document entered into international force on May 2008. Hungary presented the official report in October 2010.

In May 2008, the Hungarian organizations of persons with disabilities and their supporters decided to form a Disability Caucus for the purposes of making civil society’s own, parallel report on the status of the rights of persons with disabilities in the country. Following the model of the International Disability Caucus, which was a key party in the negotiations of the Convention, the Hungarian Caucus is a non-hierarchic association, based on solidarity and subsidiarity. The aggrupation created a parallel dossier between December 2009 and May 2010. EFOESZ, member of Inclusion Europe is part of this Caucus.