A TREATISE ON THE LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH MENTAL DISABILITY (original) (raw)
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This paper examines the promise of the proposed Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities to improve the position of people with mental illness. Proponents of the new Disability Convention argue that the state of human rights abuses experienced by people with disabilities is intolerable, that the existing international law is inadequate, that additional international law will increase the visibility of people with disabilities and will clarify the fundamental entitlement to equality, and that, as a result, the position of people with disabilities will be greatly enhanced. This paper questions the value of international law to achieve real change and warns against placing too much faith in the law. The potential of a new international law to rectify the wrongs experienced by people with psychiatric disabilities will depend on whether the new law specifically displaces the existing international law which undermines the rights of people with mental illness and on the final terms of the Convention with respect to recognition and enforcement. Ironically, it is the process of developing the Convention which has been empowering, and the utility of the new law will ultimately turn on the continuation of the momentum built through this process. D
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Background.Around the world, reports regularly expose persistent and systemic human rights violations of patients in mental health services and facilities, and of those who are unable to access needed supports. A number of factors contribute – political will; the range and quality of services available; public and professional attitudes to mental health; stigma; health professionals’ training and expertise; and available resources.Methods.This paper examines one of the main determinants, the legal framework. This sets the parameters for mental health policies and services and for applicable human rights norms and standards that can be realized in practice.Results.We provide an overview of international human rights instruments in relation to mental health disabilities, and of the major human rights violations in this area. Key implications for mental health law reform are drawn with a particular focus on discrimination and coercive interventions. The major challenges posed by the UN...
Routledge eBooks, 2019
Since Winterwerp v the Netherlands in 1979, the European Court of Human Rights and, later, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, have been developing law and policy on human rights and mental disability (taken in this chapter to include psychosocial disability/mental health problems, and mental disabilities related to old age). This paper charts the shape of those developments, relating to psychiatric detention, psychiatric treatment, and systems of guardianship. The new paradigm of human rights, manifest in both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is explored, and the potential and limitations of the ECHR in advancing that new agenda considered.
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Persons with disabilities have an equal right to access health services, including general health services and disability-related health services. In accessing health care, persons with disabilities encounter many barriers. These include stereotypes about disability on the part of health care providers; a lack of appropriately-trained health care staff; imbalanced power relationships between persons with health needs and medical professionals; inaccessible health care facilities; inaccessible health-related information; and a lack of individualised accommodations.1 These barriers are heightened in the circumstances of persons with psychosocial disabilities who face additional challenges, including legally-sanctioned involuntary commitment; forced treatment; and the use of restraints and solitary confinement in mental health care institutions.In addition, certain categories of persons with psychosocial disabilities require particular attention in health care settings. In this regard,...
Traditionally, disability was not regarded as a human rights issue. As recently as 19 years ago, it was not so broadly acknowledged. Although there had been prior cases decided in the United States and in Europe that, retrospectively, had been litigated from a human rights perspective, the characterization of "disability rights" (especially the rights of persons with mental disabilities) as a social issue was not discussed in a global public, political, or legal debate until the early 1990s. Instead, disability was seen only as a medical problem of the individual requiring a treatment or cure. By contrast, viewing disability as a human rights issue requires us to recognize the inherent equality of all people, regardless of abilities, disabilities, or differences, and obligates society to remove the attitudinal and physical barriers to equality and inclusion of people with disabilities. The ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabili...