Important good news and the hard work of our advocates have made a significant gain: Tina Minkowitz
has alerted the global movement of users and survivors of psychiatry
and those living with psychosocial disabilities of an important
development: "The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is upholding the
prohibition of involuntary institutionalization and forced treatment in
mental health services, this time in a country that is not party to
CRPD.
Involuntary hospitalization and treatment of persons with psychosocial disabilities
75. The Working Group received information on mental health laws in several jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C., and California, which authorize involuntary hospitalization based on an actual or perceived psychosocial disability, and mental health treatment without obtaining the free and informed consent of the persons concerned or providing the appropriate support to enable them to exercise their legal capacity. This form of confinement is justified using criteria such as danger to the confined person or others and/or the need for care and treatment, which is inherently discriminatory since it is based on the person’s actual or perceived impairment. The Working Group received testimony from individuals who had been subjected to prolonged periods of detention in psychiatric institutions in violation of their human rights. In some cases, individuals were subjected to “voluntary hospitalization”, but without their informed consent to treatment and without the ability to leave at any time.
76. The voluntary institutionalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities needs to take into account their vulnerable position and their likely diminished capability to challenge their detention. If such persons do not have legal assistance of their own or of their family’s choosing, effective legal assistance through a defence lawyer is to be assigned to act on their behalf and the necessity of continued institutionalization is to be reviewed regularly at reasonable intervals by a court or a competent independent body in adversarial proceedings and without automatically following the expert opinion of the institution where the persons are held. The persons are to be released if the grounds for hospitalization no longer exist. Involuntary institutionalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities and forced treatment is prohibited.
Earlier this year, as you may know, the WGAD issued an urgent appeal in a case of forced psychiatry in Norway - https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/…/DownLoadPublicCommunicati… . If the link does not work, you can search for the case here https://spcommreports.ohchr.org, by searching for Norway in the country field.
I hope that these good results from the WGAD keep coming, and encourage everyone to engage with them in country visits and to submit cases of detention and forced treatment of people with psychosocial disabilities.
All the best,
Tina
Marcella O Sullivan
see more about WGAD http://www.gicj.org/…/174-the-united-nations-working-group-…
Involuntary hospitalization and treatment of persons with psychosocial disabilities
75. The Working Group received information on mental health laws in several jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C., and California, which authorize involuntary hospitalization based on an actual or perceived psychosocial disability, and mental health treatment without obtaining the free and informed consent of the persons concerned or providing the appropriate support to enable them to exercise their legal capacity. This form of confinement is justified using criteria such as danger to the confined person or others and/or the need for care and treatment, which is inherently discriminatory since it is based on the person’s actual or perceived impairment. The Working Group received testimony from individuals who had been subjected to prolonged periods of detention in psychiatric institutions in violation of their human rights. In some cases, individuals were subjected to “voluntary hospitalization”, but without their informed consent to treatment and without the ability to leave at any time.
76. The voluntary institutionalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities needs to take into account their vulnerable position and their likely diminished capability to challenge their detention. If such persons do not have legal assistance of their own or of their family’s choosing, effective legal assistance through a defence lawyer is to be assigned to act on their behalf and the necessity of continued institutionalization is to be reviewed regularly at reasonable intervals by a court or a competent independent body in adversarial proceedings and without automatically following the expert opinion of the institution where the persons are held. The persons are to be released if the grounds for hospitalization no longer exist. Involuntary institutionalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities and forced treatment is prohibited.
Earlier this year, as you may know, the WGAD issued an urgent appeal in a case of forced psychiatry in Norway - https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/…/DownLoadPublicCommunicati… . If the link does not work, you can search for the case here https://spcommreports.ohchr.org, by searching for Norway in the country field.
I hope that these good results from the WGAD keep coming, and encourage everyone to engage with them in country visits and to submit cases of detention and forced treatment of people with psychosocial disabilities.
All the best,
Tina
Marcella O Sullivan
see more about WGAD http://www.gicj.org/…/174-the-united-nations-working-group-…
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