Institutionalisation, Disability and Ageing in the Czech Republic

International human rights law obliges European Union (EU) nations to adopt all appropriate measures to ensure that older persons, and especially older persons with disabilities requiring support, have a right to choose and are not forced to live in a specific environment because of their age-dependent, disability-dependent, or age and disability-dependent situation. This paper outlines the obligations stemming from the CRPD (Article 19) and the European Social Charter(Article 14), with its Additional Protocol of 1988 (Article 4) and makes several recommendations including the introduction of legal changes preferring community-based services over institutions across the social and health care systems, budgetary schemes clearly prioritising community-based services for people of advanced age and particularly for elderly people with disabilities.