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December 3 is the international day of persons with disabilities, which is celebrated this year under the theme of “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all”.  Approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population/ over one billion people/  live with some form of disability, who face physical, social, economic and attitudinal barriers that exclude them from participating fully and effectively as equal members of society.

About 180.000 persons with disabilities live in the Republic of Armenia today. In RA as well persons with disabilities are faced with numerous issues, including discriminative attitude, physical barriers which impede their inclusion in the society and full protection and exercising of their rights.

Over 20 thousand of persons with disabilities suffer from mental disabilities. On November 23-24 of 2013 an International Conference on mental health issues was held in Yerevan on proper exercising of the right of persons with disabilities to independent living and inclusion in the society organized by Open Society Foundations-Armenia. International and national experts, stakeholders participated in the conference as well as Zhuleta Amarikyan, who had spent over 6 months at the mental hospital due to enforced hospitalization. During the conference Zh. Amarikyan presented the living conditions at the mental hospital as well as those feelings she felt as a result of isolation from the society.

By the way, on the international day of persons with disabilities, the decision of the RA Court of Appeals over Zhuleta Amarikyan’s case was delivered, whereby, the RA Court of Appeals abrogated the decision of the Court of First Instance to subject Zhuleta Amarikyan to enforced medical treatment at the mental hospital. The court reached this decision by justifying that the person appearing in the Court of First Instance on Zhuleta Amarikyan’s behalf, M. A., did not have a properly worded and notarized power of attorney, while “involving M. A. as a representative, the court in fact put the emphasis on the fact that Zhuleta Amarikyan cannot appear before the court alone”, as a result of which her right to equality before the law was also violated.

By taking into account that the current reforms in the RA, we hope that in the near future the persons with disabilities will be ensured with all of the safeguards allowing full exercising of their right, including independent living and inclusion in the society.