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In connection with the coordination mechanism stipulated in Article 33 of the CRPD, the
Commissioner for Fundamental Rights indicated that he, as an accredited UN National Human Rights
Institution, would be happy to perform the tasks thereof as well.
Following the NPM’s visit to the Closed Psychiatric Ward of Merényi Hospital, staff members of the
Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights contacted the Hungarian Psychiatric Association
and came up with the common idea to prepare a brochure, written in plain language, providing useful
information both to hospital personnel and to persons living with psycho-social disability. The NPM
distributed the draft, the result of their joint efforts that had started in early 2017, among the members
of the CCB.
According to the representative of the MDAC, there is some controversy between the state’s
international legal obligations deriving from the CRPD and the prevailing Hungarian regulations. It is
important that persons with psychosocial disabilities who are placed and treated in psychiatric wards
against their will should be aware of their rights and the way they can exercise those rights. In her view,
the right to receive information and the provision of information on restrictive measures should be
mentioned only very briefly; however, emphasizing the statutory prohibition of cage beds as well as the
operation of patients’ rights representative would be important. As the terminology used in domestic
legal regulations is medical in nature, she recommended the involvement of experts by experience in
order to find out if it meets the requirement of being easily understandable.
The comments of the representative of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union focused on
comprehensibility, terminology, and the addition of visual elements (demonstrating procedural actions
on a timeline would be appropriate). In her view, the report by the Commissioner for Fundamental
Rights on the right to legal remedy of persons in emergency and mandatory treatment, 79 prepared
within the frameworks of his fundamental-rights-protection activities, shows that several pieces of
information contained in the draft should be known to patients right upon their admission (e.g., on
delivering a ruling after conducting a court inspection). The constraints on the length of the leaflet
notwithstanding, it should include some practical information (e.g., “May they take away my mobile
phone?”).
A colleague of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights explained that their objective was to prepare
a publication providing the necessary information using simple, informal language that would be easy to
understand. She explained that a psychiatrist, representing several organizations, who participated in the
work of the preparatory group insisted on not oversimplifying the language since it could be confusing
to those concerned if the healthcare personnel or the court inspection used a terminology different
from that of the leaflet. They planned to involve a psychiatric ward where the practical use of the leaflet
could be tested. She reminded the participants that, pursuant to the prevailing legal regulations, no
institution could be compelled to make the leaflet accessible to the patients; therefore, if the leaflet is
not compatible with the expectations of the service providers, or the director of a hospital cannot
identify with its contents, it will not be put it on display. The leaflet would be published in three
versions with different lengths: a short version for the patients, a longer one and an extended version
for the healthcare personnel. It would provide an opportunity to disseminate information on the basis
of the target audience.
The Head of the Department added that such an information material would be in great need at other
places of detention, prisons, and police stations as well.
The representative of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee added that they had examined the language of
the information materials distributed in police lock-ups and prisons, and they would prefer the
introduction of a shorter, simpler version. Since they could not visit police lock-ups anymore, she
suggested that the NPM should pay attention to this issue. In her view, the relationship between the
79
Report № AJB-305/2017
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