Speaker at conference in Cyprus questions use of R-word

From The Cyprus Mail:

Cyprus fell foul of political correctness March 12 when a guest speaker, Dr Ulrich Hellman upbraided organisers for their use of term ‘retarded’ to refer to the mentally disabled in the conference title.

“I would like to thank Dr Hellman for his important observation that the title of this conference should be changed from ‘Persons with mental retardation” to ‘Persons with mental disabilities’ as is already the case in all civilised countries,” said Claila Theodoulou, a state attorney with the legal service involved with the mentally disabled.

The full title of the conference was “The legal competence, supported decision-making and guardianship of adult persons with mental retardation”.

Hellman, the the legal representative of disabled rights’ group Inclusion Europe was participating in the conference, as was the Committee for the Protection of Mentally Retarded Persons (CPMRP), the main government service responsible for persons with mental disabilities.

Other than the name issue, which has become contentious in other parts of the world, the conference discussed Cypriot law in relation to the treatment of the mentally disabled.

Under the law, which dates back to 1931, the mentally disabled are often deemed incapable of exercising sound judgement and are, therefore, deprived of all rights and recognition by the law.

“This law was designed for psychiatric disorders and, once a person is deemed incapable all his rights are forfeit. It denies people their rights generally this law, and needs to be changed,” said Dr Stella Pleipel of CPMRP.

In many respects, Cyprus is held to be behind international norms regarding its treatment and classification mechanisms of persons with mental disabilities. “It is very clear that the legislative framework on the basis of which the welfare services operate is outdated and based on outmoded perspectives,” said Constantinos Ephraim, a member of CPMRP.

After many years of having to cope with legislation they viewed as fundamentally unfair the parents of mentally disabled persons in Cyprus are looking forward to the integration of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into the Cypriot legal structure.

Cyprus was one of the countries to ratify the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities in 2007 and, according to Labour and Social Insurance Minister Sotiroula Charalambous, it is “soon” to be integrated into the national legal structure.

Article 12 of the Convention is held to be especially significant, and indeed much of the recent conference was devoted to the discussion of its implications for the current existing local legal structure. This article guarantees that persons with mental disabilities have rights under the law, including the right to manage and dispose of their own property as they deem fit.

“It is very important for us to realise first that if we truly wish to realise the rights of the mentally disabled we need to recognise that these individuals are able to take their own decisions,” said Charalambous of the changes in social attitude necessary to allow the legislative changes to have a significant social impact.

“An individual with mental disabilities is not an individual with psychological disorders,” said Theodoulou.