Equal rights campaigners called on MEPs today to ban European states from incarcerating disabled people in institutions.
With three million people across Europe forced to live in care homes, Martin Naughton of Ireland's Centre for Independent Living insisted housing people with disabilities in care homes could lead to a breach of human rights.
"The institutionalisation of people with disabilities has a very negative impact on their lives," he said. "This continued practice is of very serious concern to us, particularly as in many cases it will cost less to support people living in their own communities.
"We are asking our MEPs, the Disability Intergroup and the European Court for Human Rights the same question: Is it really acceptable for three million people to be incarcerated in institutions where their human rights are too frequently ignored?"
Thousands of campaigners will converge on the European Parliament in Strasbourg today as part of the Freedom Drive.
The activists, including 50 delegates from Ireland , are to hold talks with MEPs in a bid to stop the use of institutions.
They called on governments across the EU to provide resources to help people live independently with support from communities.
Mr Naughton also warned that although facilities to aid independent living in Dublin were fairly good, the rest of the country did not have the same standards.
"Independent living facilities in many towns and rural areas across Ireland range from poor to non-existent," he said.
Activists also called for 5 per cent of development budgets to be ring-fenced to ensure the involvement of disability groups in aid programmes in the developing world.