05 December 2025

Protecting persons with disabilities from violence in institutions

Protecting persons with disabilities from violence in institutions requires legal guarantees, empowered monitoring, accessible justice and cultural change. All of these actions should be driven by the lived experience of persons with disabilities.
Infographic - protecting persons with disabilities from violence in institutions

Challenges and success factors

Institutional cultures still expose persons with disabilities to violence and neglect. Progress comes through CRPD-aligned laws, independent monitoring and meaningful participation. Accountability, awareness and cooperation remain key to lasting protection.

Challenges and gaps

  • Persistent institutional culture and medical model of disability
  • Insufficient legal safeguards and weak enforcement.
  • Fragmented monitoring systems, no harmonised standards.
  • Limited access to justice: fear of retaliation, inaccessible complaints systems, low awareness of rights.
  • Underfunding and understaffing; lack of training and accountability.
  • Resistance to deinstitutionalisation and a lack of community alternatives.

Success factors 

  • CRPD-aligned laws and clear accountability frameworks.
  • Regular, unannounced independent monitoring.
  • Cooperation between authorities, service providers and DPOs.
  • Professional training and peer-led awareness.
  • Empowerment and self-advocacy as part of accountability.
  • Inclusive, rights-based standards and data-driven oversight.
     

Taking action

Change begins by strengthening protection, prevention and access to justice. Training, data and user-led monitoring can turn policy into practice, while accessible complaint systems and inclusive procedures would empower people to speak up. 

Strengthening protection

  • Introduce minimum protection standards and sanctions for violence.
  • Mainstream disability in all legislation and policies.
  • Ensure procedural accommodations and accessible complaint systems.
  • Involve persons with disabilities in decision-making.
  • Guarantee proper vetting and training of staff. 

Investing in prevention and monitoring

  • Train staff and inspectors to recognise and prevent abuse.
  • Empower self-advocates and support user-led monitoring.
  • Ensure independent oversight bodies are well-resourced and empowered to act.
  • Promote data collection and feedback loops to drive policy change.
  • Embed human dignity in monitoring standards. 

Strengthening response and access to justice

  • Change institutional culture and medical model approaches to disability.
  • Revise fragmented monitoring systems and ensure harmonised standards.
  • Ensure access to justice, address risks of retaliation and improve awareness of rights.
  • Ensure sufficient allocation of funding and address understaffing.

Next steps and ways forward

Sustained collaboration is essential. FRA can guide and connect partners, while national actors embed self-advocacy, improve training and coordinate monitoring, to turn commitment into rights-based protection. 

What FRA can do

  • Provide guidance to support harmonisation of standards.
  • Facilitate peer-learning and cross-border exchange on monitoring and prevention.
  • Use convening power to bring national actors together.
  • Promote accessible communication.
  • Advocate for CRPD compliance in EU funding and policy frameworks. 

What national actors can do

  • Align laws, policies and practice with CRPD obligations
  • Build stable self-advocacy structures with legal mandates.
  • Ensure continuous training and supervision of staff.
  • Map and coordinate all actors to avoid protection gaps.
  • Integrate monitoring data into policy and funding decisions.
  • Engage communities to shift attitudes and support inclusion. 

Prevention, protection and response must go hand in hand, so every person with a disability can live in safety, dignity and equality