CAT/OP/ROU/1
had not been discharged by the court due to the absence of alternatives to detention and the
socioeconomic situation of the patient.
127. The Subcommittee recommends that a nationwide assessment of all patients
detained in such hospitals be undertaken. Furthermore, the State party should
examine, as a matter of priority, ways to establish community-based services in order
to discharge patients from the security psychiatric hospital when they have recovered.
128. The Subcommittee is seriously concerned at the findings of the investigation
conducted by the Centre for Legal Resources between 2014 and 2015 on the rights of
children and young people with disabilities in Romania. In particular, it is concerned about
the number of persons with disabilities who died in institutions in the four years preceding
the study — 4,600 persons with disabilities, including 1,500 children and young people —
and that the police and/or the Public Prosecutor were notified of fewer than 10 of those
deaths. The Subcommittee is also concerned about the information provided by the State
party that complaints of abuse in social centres, which are under the authority of the
Ministry of Health, are complicated to lodge and not effective (see also CAT/C/ROU/CO/2,
para. 14 (a)).
129. The Subcommittee echoes the Committee against Torture recommendation that
the State party should amend legislation in order to provide persons with mental and
psychosocial disabilities with the right to legal capacity and to ensure the effective
supervision and monitoring by judicial organs of any placement in psychiatric
hospitals and institutions of persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities (see
CAT/C/ROU/CO/2, para. 14 (a)). The State party should establish a special
complaints mechanism for persons placed in such institutions to ensure that patients
are granted independent legal representation enabling them to have their complaints
examined before a court or another independent body and provide redress to victims.
Notifications of the death of institutionalized persons should systematically be
transmitted to the police and/or the Public Prosecutor and a prompt and effective
investigation into the circumstances of the death should be undertaken.
VII. Follow-up and dissemination
130. The Subcommittee recommends that, given the preventive effect of such a
measure, the State make the present report public, as mentioned in paragraph 6
above. In addition, the Subcommittee recommends that the State party disseminate
the report among the relevant institutions in all branches of government.
131. The Subcommittee recalls that the present report represents only the first stage
of a constructive dialogue with the Romanian authorities on the above-mentioned
issues. The Subcommittee requests the State party to reply, in writing, within six
months of the date of the transmission of the report, providing a full account of the
actions it has taken and that it proposes to take to implement the Subcommittee’s
recommendations.
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