Last 6th July 2004, a ministerial decree banned the use of cage beds within psychiatric and social care facilities in Hungary.
Cage beds - hospital beds with a metal or netted cage placed on top of them to enclose a person within their confines - currently exist throughout the Hungarian psychiatric system.
The Hungarian government has been under pressure for a number of years to end the use of this medieval practice.
However, the Hungarian Mental Health Interest Forum (PIF) and the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) still think there is lot of work to be done.
One of their concerns is that the decree fails to address the lack of training of staff of psychiatric institutions in de-escalation techniques and safe restraint use, as mandated in the standards of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).
The MDAC demands to allow unrestricted access to non-governmental organizations to perform human rights monitoring. John Bowis, MEP, who has actively campaigned for this ban, said that this was "an important step in Europe, and one which the governments of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia should urgently follow.
These countries should also follow the sensitive way in which the Hungarian Minister engaged with the civil society and professional organizations while formulating the decree."
