| Description: | Engage in strategic litigation initiatives before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to support the de-institutionalization of persons with intellectual and psycho-social disabilities in Guatemala and their full integration into the community, on an equal basis with others. Includes a successful precautionary measures petition to attend to gross abuses, regularized rapes, sex trafficking, discriminatory neglect, and unjustified use of medical and physical restraints in the National (Federico Mora) Psychiatric Hospital; regularized hearings thereon; and a contentious individual complaint filed on behalf of all non-forensic detainees in the institution. Engagement in Guatemala City, Guatemala (visits to institution, meetings with government officials); Washington (for hearings before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights); and Buffalo, N.Y. (drafting of litigation-related documents, international strategy meetings and preparation for hearings). |
| Project/Activity Leader(s): | Tara Melish, Associate Professor and Director, Buffalo Human Rights Center |
| Unit: | Law School |
| Department: | Law School |
| City: | Washington |
| State: | DC |
| Country: | United States |
| External Funding: | Yes |
| Funding Source: | Disability Rights International (and its funders) |
| Start Date: | 2011 |
| End Date: | active |
| External Partners: | Disability Rights International; Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala; Silvia Quan |
| Are UB students involved? | No |
