The European Court of Human Rights passed a judgment in the case of V.I. vs. Moldova, where it highlighted the critical problems of discrimination based on disability and age, which led to the ill-treatment of a child with intellectual disabilities. The Court found the problem systemic, calling on the Government to take general measures to put an end to future abuses. The case was presented by the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) in a press conference at IPN.

According to Valerian Mămăligă, lawyer for IDOM’s Advocacy and Strategic Litigation Program, the European Court’s judgement reveals discrimination and abuse against children with disabilities. IDOM, together with the Validity Foundation, represented at the ECHR a person with a perceived mild intellectual disability, whose ordeal began when he was 13 years old, after the death of his mother and of his father later. Following the closure of the boarding school where he was placed, he was then unjustly transferred to the Codru Psychiatric Hospital under false pretexts. Despite protests, he was detained against his will, administered heavy psychiatric drugs without informed consent, and underwent degrading treatment, being also placed in the adults’ section of the institution with his hands tied.

According to IDOM, the Court’s judgement emphasized systemic failures in Moldova’s legal framework, especially regarding the involuntary placement of children with disabilities in psychiatric hospitals and the absence of independent guarantees to prevent abuse. The Court stressed the need for comprehensive reforms to protect the rights and dignity of individuals, underlining the obligation of the state to establish effective protection systems.

The Court found that the existing Moldovan legal framework fell short of the state’s duty to establish and apply effectively a system providing protection to intellectually disabled persons in general, and to children without parental care in particular, against serious breaches of their integrity.

Noting that the case disclosed a systemic problem, the Court decreed that it fell upon the Republic of Moldova to take general measures to resolve the problems at the root of the violations found and to prevent similar violations from taking place in the future.

The Court held that the Republic of Moldova was to pay the applicant €25,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €7,420 in respect of costs and expenses.

Vanu Jereghi, IDOM executive director, believes that this case shows the failure of the Republic of Moldova to provide adequate guarantees and mechanisms to protect the rights and well-being of people in psychiatric institutions, especially children. The case had been pending at the European Court for seven years.

Note: IPN Agency offers the right of reply to persons who consider themselves targeted in the news made from the statements of the organizers of this press conference, including by facilitating the organization of another press conference under similar conditions.