
The country that closed its psychiatric hospitals - DanBC
https://members.tortoisemedia.com/2019/12/16/country-that-closed-its-mental-health-institutions-ian-birrell/content.html
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DanBC
When people talk about a human rights approach to mental health treatment
there are roughly two different systems, and they're not really compatible
with each other.

The most well known, main-stream, approach uses the UDHR. In Europe this flows
into the ECHR. This means that people have a right to life; they have a right
to liberty; a right to effective remedy; a right not to be discriminated
against; etc. But in ECHR there are exemptions. For example, article 5 says:

> (e) the lawful detention of persons for the prevention of the spreading of
> infectious diseases, of persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts
> or vagrants.

The other approach - more radical, less mainstream - is to use another United
Nations convention, the CRPD (convention on rights for people with
disabilities), in particular using the interpretation of that convention by
the UN Committee for the CRPD. Under this system you cannot have forced
treatment; you cannot have detention for mental illness; you cannot have
substituted decision making.

This is the committee's discussion of Article 14:
[https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/GC/GuidelinesA...](https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/GC/GuidelinesArticle14.doc)

I found this discussion to be a useful summary:
[https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-
health/disability-...](https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-
health/disability-rights-mental-health-treatment-and-the-united-nations-
ronr2019/)

The author of the submitted article is from the UK, so I guess the UN report
on mental health treatment in the UK is useful:
[https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/CRPD.C.15.R.2....](https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/CRPD.C.15.R.2.Rev.1-ENG.doc)

UDHR: [https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-
rights/](https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/) ECHR:
[https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf](https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf)
CRPD:
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html)

