Eric Rosenthal

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1993

Eric Rosenthal

Mental Disability Rights International

http://www.mdri.org

Washington D.C., United States

Civil and Human Rights, Health

The Bold Idea:

Around the world, people with mental illnesses and disabilities face discrimination and are victims of abuse, often within the institutions that were established to address their needs. Site visits to state psychiatric hospitals and social care homes often reveals grave violations of basic human rights, including the arbitrary detention of adults and children, inhuman and degrading living conditions and treatment, barbaric seclusion and restraint practices, and a lack of appropriate rehabilitation and therapy.

Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) documents conditions, publishes reports on human rights enforcement, and promotes international oversight of the rights of people with mental disabilities. Drawing on the skills and experience of attorneys, mental health professionals, human rights advocates, people with mental disabilities and their family members, MDRI trains and supports advocates seeking legal and service system reform and assists governments to develop laws and policies to promote community integration and human rights enforcement for people with mental disabilities.

Since its founding in 1993, MDRI has: investigated and documented human rights in 14 countries of Latin America and Eastern Europe; published reports on human rights conditions of people with mental disabilities in Uruguay (1995), Hungary (1997), Russia (1999), and Mexico (2000); trained activists from 16 countries by holding workshops and study tours; advised US and international agencies, including the State Department, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, and the US National Council on Disability, on human rights advocacy and development programs.

As a result of MDRI's work: an abusive psychiatric facility was closed in Mexico, and the Mexican government hired an MDRI adviser to create its first government-funded, community-based mental health programs; a $4 million program to support community integration for children with disabilities in Russia was established by the US Agency for International Development as recommended by MDRI; Since its founding in 1993, MDRI has: investigated and documented human rights in 14 countries of Latin America and Eastern Europe; published reports on human rights conditions of people with mental disabilities in Uruguay (1995), Hungary (1997), Russia (1999), and Mexico (2000); trained activists from 16 countries by holding workshops and study tours; advised US and international agencies.

Biography:

Eric Rosenthal is the founder of Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI), an advocacy organization dedicated to the international recognition and enforcement of the rights of people with mental disabilities. He has served as the organization's Executive Director since 1993.

Rosenthal has conducted monitoring and evaluation missions in psychiatric institutions, mental retardation facilities, prisons, jails, and orphanages in Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uruguay. Rosenthal has trained disability rights activists in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, and the US National Council on Disability. In 2001, Rosenthal was elected to the Board of Directors of the United States International Council on Disability (USICD), the US affiliate of Rehabilitation International and Disabled Persons International (DPI).

Rosenthal serves on the International Watch Advisory Committee of the US National Council on Disability (NCD). On behalf of NCD, Rosenthal is the primary author of US Foreign Policy and Disability: Legislative Strategies and Civil Rights Protections to Ensure Inclusion of People with Disabilities. As a result of Rosenthal's efforts, key recommendations of the NCD have been enacted into US law, requiring US foreign assistance programs to respond to the concerns of people with disabilities.

Rosenthal is the primary author of a series of country reports on international disability rights: Not on the Agenda: Human Rights of People with Mental Disabilities in Kosovo; Human Rights & Mental Health: Mexico; Children in Russia's Institutions: Human Rights and Opportunities for Reform; Human Rights and Mental Health: Hungary; Human Rights and Mental Health: Uruguay. He is co-author of Human Rights & Mental Health in Peru. These reports have prompted governments to end numerous human rights violations against people with mental disabilities, to adopt legal protections and to close abusive psychiatric facilities. Through MDRI, Rosenthal has played an important role with governments and foreign assistance organizations in promoting the creation of a broad array of community-based services and support systems for people with mental disabilities.

Eric Rosenthal has been profiled in the Washington Post editorial page and Style and in the New York Times Magazine. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio, ABC News 20/20, CNN, BBC, UNIVISION, and Voice of America. Rosenthal's work has also been covered in the press in France, Hungary, Finland, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United Kingdom and in English and Spanish language wire services serving Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Eric Rosenthal has published op-ed pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Rosenthal received a BA with honors from the University of Chicago in 1985. He received his law degree cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1992. He was selected for the Public Interest Law Scholars program at Georgetown and currently serves as an advisor to students in the program. Eric Rosenthal was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Public International Law (1991), an Echoing Green Public Service Fellowship (1993), and a Kornfeld Fellowship in Bioethics (2000). Rosenthal has also published numerous academic articles and book chapters on the international human rights of people with mental disabilities.

In May 2001, the Mental Health Association of New York awarded him a "Humanitarian Award" for "exceptional dedication and leadership in advocating for the humane treatment of people with mental disabilities worldwide."