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Urgent Action
Bulgaria
Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
Women inmates at Sanadinovo
Background Information
Recommended Action
reprinted with permission
Disabled women condemned to slow death
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Amnesty
International News Release dd Oct-10-2001: The Sanadinovo Social Home for Mentally Disabled Women houses 97 women. A delegation from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) and Amnesty International visited the institution on 1 October. They found around 20 of the most severely disabled women are being housed in a two- room, single-storey building, separated from the rest of the facility by a high wire fence. Some of these women also suffer from mental illness. The delegation found most of the 20 women sitting on the ground in the small, paved yard outside the building. There were no chairs or benches. They wore dirty, ill-fitting, tattered clothes. Several women with amputated limbs or other physical disabilities moved about without any help from the staff. Only one of the physically disabled women was in an old wheel-chair, but it was not clear whether she had to share it with others. It appears that during milder, warm weather these women spend most of the day outside the building in the small yard. Once the delegation inspected the building it was clear why: the conditions inside were appallingly filthy, smelly and unhygienic. The floors of the rooms were wet and there was an overpowering smell of urine and feces even though all the barred windows and doors had been open. There were feces on the floor, particularly under the beds, and traces of feces all over the walls. Not far from the small building is a cage measuring roughly three meters by one and a half (10 feet by 5 feet), with two brick walls and two made of iron bars and wire. At the time of the visit six women were held in this cage. The director of the home later explained that staff lock patients in the cage when they are 'violent and destructive, as we do not have adequate drugs to administer to the patients in such situations'. The cage was full of urine and feces and the women covered in filth. One was naked from the waist down, and many sores were visible on her skin. It was not clear how long anyone would be held in the cage. There appeared to be no staff supervision of these women and at one point we observed another patient bring a plastic bottle of water which she then held between the bars for a woman on the other side to drink. The Sanadinovo institution is staffed by four nurses and five orderlies who work in shifts. At night only one nurse and an orderly are on duty. They cannot possibly adequately care for so many women, particularly the most seriously disabled who are held in the small building.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons proclaims that 'the mentally retarded person has a right to protection from exploitation, abuse and degrading treatment' (paragraph 6). World Mental Health Day is 10 October. For more details see press release Bulgaria: Disabled women condemned to slow death published on 10 October 2001.
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Appeals
to: Fax: 011
3592 981 8170 Fax: 011 3592 989 0110 Salutation: Dear General Prosecutor
e-mail: mlsp@mlsp.government.bg inter.coop@mlsp.government.bg Salutation: Dear Minister
Fax: 011
3592 981 1833 Salutation: Dear Minister
Fax: 011 3592 980 4484 Salutation: Dear President
Email:
mailmn@storm.ca If
you're in the US: Email: bulgaria@access.digex.net
CANADA:
International Postal Rates for letters out of Canada Reprinted
with permission by Scott
Harrison of the Urgent Action Program Office at Amnesty
International (with amendments for Canada)
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