2.4.2.2 Deinstitutionalisation No later than at the time of the ratification of the UN CRPD, Austria committed itself to the deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities. Commitment to deinstitutionalisation Section 19 of the UN CRPD guarantees the right to live independently and be integrated into the community. All persons with disabilities – this includes all types of mental, psycho-social and somatic disabilities – have the right to make the same choices as others and to live within the community. States are therefore obligated to take measures to enable people to fully enjoy this right and to guarantee full integration and participation in the community. Persons with disabilities must have the free choice of where and with whom they want to live and what way of living they choose. The right to live in freely chosen relationships is a fundamental need that is just as important as the right to live as autonomously as possible despite a need for assistance and support. A prerequisite for this is the creation of community-based support services, including personal assistance and community-based facilities. The commissions visited numerous institutions, where their size alone gives rise to doubt that the right to make choices and community-based support are ensured and that concepts of deinstitutionalisation are being implemented. The impression is reinforced due to the fact that residents are often placed far away from their home towns. Even though a centralisation of homes provides certain selective advantages in the overall management of care, in any case “normality” for clients is lost as a result. Placement in rooms with multiple beds, a lack of privacy, pocket money that is “managed”, care and outdoor walks that are scheduled are just some of the restrictions that must be accepted in large-scale facilities. But also personal contacts and supportive relationships that might have been possible in the vicinity are – at the very least – made more difficult when residents are transferred to homes that are further away. As a result of the size of the facilities, the way that individual needs and wishes are addressed becomes inferior. It is an intrinsic quality of large-scale institutions that the basic attitude vis-à-vis persons with disabilities is primarily protective rather than an attitude that is based on resources and strengths. In many conversations with the commissions, care staff reported that some clients could have moved to training apartments, etc. long ago if there had been vacant places. Deinstitutionalisation has not been realised Often sexual needs in homes are viewed as disruptive. This is particularly the case when there are no private rooms or pedagogical concepts relating to sexuality. For example, a commission observed that at least one resident of a large-scale institution was administered psychotropic drugs to reduce his sexual urge to masturbate. The commission viewed this as a violation of his privacy. This resident was Individual needs are not addressed 73