NO MORE TREATMENT WITHOUT CONSENT

[julie gosling]

http://www.mdac.info/en/05/03/2013/un-torture-expert-no-more-treatm...

The report and the statement are together groundbreaking contributions to global efforts to mainstream standards of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) across all human rights mechanisms. This has been a key strand of MDAC’s advocacy for the last three years. The word “groundbreaking” is, of course, overused in human rights advocacy. But Professor Méndez’s report deserves this accolade because for the first time the UN’s top expert on torture (not disability, or mental health) has established that:

- It is unacceptable for laws to allow doctors to enforce mental health treatment on people when that person is refusing such treatment. This means that laws should be adjusted to give primacy to the consent of the person concerned.

- Any form and duration of restraint and seclusion should be immediately banned, wherever they occur, including in psychiatric hospitals.

- Mental health services should be oriented to voluntary community-based services rather than compulsion-based hospital confinement and treatment.

“MDAC urges governments to reflect on the report, engage in dialogue with the disability and human rights community, and initiate law and policy reform to implement its recommendations,” said Oliver Lewis, MDAC Executive Director. “MDAC pays tribute to Manfred Nowak, Professor Méndez’s predecessor who initiated this process in 2008. We also put on record our appreciation to Professor Méndez for the participatory way in which he consulted civil society organisations, a process in which MDAC was privileged to take part.”

In his powerful speech to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, Professor Méndez explained that “the severity of the mental illness cannot justify detention nor can it be justified by a motivation to protect the safety of the person or of others.” In discussions this morning diplomats from Pakistan and Russia accused Professor Méndez of stepping outside his mandate because healthcare is about treatment, not ill-treatment. These statements were vigorously rebuffed by many other States which strongly welcomed the report’s focus on abuses in healthcare. Responding to these comments Professor Méndez accepted that this topic is controversial, adding “It is my role to elicit debate and not to state the obvious

(*) Read the full report by the Special Rapporteur: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Se...