The Open Society Mental Health Initiative

Highlights

1) Dumping Grounds For Forgotten People

An investigation by Bulgarian journalist Yana Buhrer Tavanier on the mental care institutions in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.   

Please visit the website dedicated to the investigation and view the new promotional video.

Judith Klein, director of the OSMHI (Open Society Mental Health Initiative) has written a foreword to the article, which appears in the newsletter of the European Coalition for Community Living, Issue No. 10, October 2009 and also on the investigation website.


2) Report of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care

A report on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care was handed over to Commissioner Vladimír ?pidla on September 23, 2009. The report was drafted by a group of independent experts convened by Commissioner Spidla in February 2009 to address the issues of institutional care reform in their complexity.  The report is also available in Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian.

Films

Karin Dom - a training and resource centre for children with special needs and their families

This short film was made following a BBC production about a children's institution in Mogilino, Bulgaria. The film features MHI partner organization Karin Dom and highlights what community-based alternatives for children can be like in Bulgaria.

UN Disability Convention

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities received its 20th ratification on April 3, 2008, triggering the entry into force of the Convention and its Optional Protocol on May 3, 2008. This marks a major milestone in the effort to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

Information on the convention process:
Convention in Easy to Read
View the list of signatories
Countries that have ratified the Convention
ICRPD Ratification Toolkit
Convention and Inclusive Education
View more information

Publications:
UN Handbook for Parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol
First Implementation Manual For The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (Addressed Specifically To Users And Survivors Of Psychiatry)

Ratify Now (The campaign to support global grassroots efforts to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities).

Films about Inclusion

Foster Care for Children with Disabilities: English ** Russian

I Want to Work and I Can Work!

Living Proof: The right to live in the community

Reality - film on personal assistance

Being an Unperson. A short film about the experience of dehumanization within the care system.

In My Language. A short film about autism and nonverbal communication.

A Way of Describing Autism. A short film by Dave Spicer and Amanda Baggs.

Equalise It!

A Manifesto for Disability Equality in Development Cooperation

The international committee of UK Disabled People's Council (formerly BCODP) has written this manifesto in the light of the signing of the UN Convention on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

To read the campaign launch letter, please click here.

Organisations who wish to sign up to the Manifesto are asked to contact Bill Albert or Mark Harrison so that their name and logo can be added to the list of signatories.