The Estonian Human Rights Centre is participating as a partner in the project “Balancing Safety and Privacy: Upholding Fundamental Rights in Psychiatric Care” (abbreviated as PsyCams). At the project’s kick-off meeting in Prague, we had the opportunity to learn more about the experience and expertise of the other participating organisations and to clarify the project’s focus and the tasks ahead of us.

Grounded in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the project aims to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations, healthcare professionals, and oversight bodies to apply the Charter in practice. To this end, we will conduct a comparative legal analysis of the use of surveillance cameras in closed settings across the partner countries, collect personal accounts of lived experience using a purpose-built methodology, and jointly develop recommendations for professionals working in closed settings and oversight authorities — recommendations that will support both the safety and the fundamental rights of those in their care.

The Estonian Human Rights Centre is responsible for the project’s communication package, from developing the visual identity to running the social media awareness-raising campaign. The visual identity concept, developed in collaboration with design agency Velvet, draws on the principle of a Venn diagram, where the intersection of two distinct values represents their shared space. In the case of PsyCams, that shared space is the individual: their dignity, autonomy, and fundamental rights. The entire visual identity is built around this idea.

The project runs for 24 months, with all activities carried out across all five partner countries: Czechia, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, and Italy. Through international cooperation, the project promotes awareness of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and facilitates cross-border exchange of experience.

The project is funded by the Estonian Civil Society Foundation to the amount of €5,985.00, and the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.