On June 18, in Nencheva v Bulgaria, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Bulgaria violated Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the death of fifteen children and young adults in an institution in Bulgaria during the winter of 1996/1997.
The applicants in this case were the parents of seven of the fifteen individuals that died. All of the children in the institution had severe physical or mental disabilities. At that time Bulgaria was undergoing an economic, financial and social crisis. As a result, the institution had lost significant amounts of funding. Food was scarce and there was limited fuel available for heating. The director of the institution had appealed to the local and national authorities on a number of occasions for assistance. The ECtHR found that the authorities should have known that there was a real risk to the lives of the children and had still not taken the necessary measures within the limits of their powers.
Bulgaria is the subject of a number of impending cases in relation to its state institutions. A 2011 United Nations Human Rights Committee review called on Bulgaria to “urgently take action to close all children’s institutions, accompanied by practical alternatives to institutionalisation, sufficient funds to create and maintain a sustainable system of care”.
Bulgaria ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2012. Article 19 of the UNCRPD sets out the right for persons with a disability to live in the community, with equal choices to others. Institutionalisation has not been considered to be compatible with Article 19. Ireland signed the UNCRPD in 2007 but is yet to ratify it.
Click here to read a press release from the European Court of Human Rights.
Click here to read the full judgment (currently only available in French).
Click here to read an article from the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC).