Title: "Once you enter, you never leave"
Description: "More than 9,000 persons with intellectual or mental disabilities in Croatia live in institutions. Some live in poor conditions. But even when conditions are satisfactory and staff members treat residents well, their rights are neither fully realized nor realizable. Denied privacy and autonomy to make even the most simple life choices, they cannot lead anything like normal lives.  Few persons with intellectual or mental disabilities living in Croatian institutions have ever left to live in the community. Life for the few that have has greatly improved. With assistance, many do their own shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Some even work. Yet the government has offered little commitment to expanding these community-based programs, despite their proven success.  Croatia was one of the first countries in the world to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a document that explicitly applies basic human rights standards to persons with disabilities, including the right to live in the community. In 2006, Croatia also pledged with the European Union to move persons with disabilities from institutions into the community.  This report details the stark contrast between Croatia's commitments and its actions in fulfilling the rights of some of its most vulnerable people. It recommends that Croatia draws on the experiences of other countries and its own community-based support programs to create and implement a plan to deinstitutionalize and move persons with disabilities into the community. It also recommends that persons with disabilities should be involved in every part of the process, and that the European Union take a more active role in promoting community living and deinstitutionalization in Croatia."--P. [4] of cover.
Subjects: Deinstitutionalization, Human rights, People with disabilities, People with mental disabilities
Places: Croatia