Background/Objectives: The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) Too... more Background/Objectives: The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) Toolkit has recently been developed by a consortium from across 15 EU countries, funded by the European Commission. The ITHACA Toolkit provides a clear and practical way to monitor human rights and general health care in mental health facilities.Methods: In developing the ITHACA Toolkit service users were consulted and employed at all stages. Over 100 service users\u2019 participated in the focus groups which were conducted in each country. A key component of this consultation was to build service user capacity and involvement.Results: The toolkit was designed by services users, human rights experts, psychiatrists, psychologists and social scientists. It has been successfully field tested in 87 sites across 15 countries, covering a wide range of mental health care settings and can identify both human rights violations and examples of good practice in protecting, respecting and fulfilling the rights of persons with mental disabilities.Discussion/Conclusions: The ITHACA Toolkit is closely based upon the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This lecture will present the development and the final version of the ITHACA Toolkit, which is now available in the following languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovak, and Turkish. For full details of the ITHACA Toolkit, please go to our website at www.ithaca-study.eu.Funding: European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Policy (DG SANCO)
This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapte... more This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapter explains, a case needs to have exhausted effective remedies available in the domestic legal system before applying to Strasbourg. In order to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the applicant must be a ‘victim’ as set out by Article 34 of the ECHR. The chapter discusses the main grounds for declaring a case inadmissible, and describes aspects related to the procedure of taking a case to the ECtHR. In cases concerning people with mental disabilities, there may often be information which is private in nature and which the applicant would not want the public to know about. In such cases, the applicant can request for anonymity or confidentiality to be ensured. The applicant is never at any risk of paying the respondent Government’s costs, even if the Court declares a case inadmissible.Keywords: admissibility; anonymity; confidentiality; domestic proceedings; ECHR; ECtHR; mental disabilities; victim status
Mental disability has come of age as a subject of concern under the European Convention on Human ... more Mental disability has come of age as a subject of concern under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Between 2000 and 2004, there were over 40 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) relating to mental disability or to detention in psychiatric and related facilities. In some areas, such as the law relating to detention of individuals with mental health difficulties, it is possible now to speak of a jurisprudence of the Court. The European Court has in recent years made considerable progress in the protection of the rights of people with mental disabilities, and as the core of the book shows, there is potential for a good deal more. This introductory chapter also outlines the content available in other chapters of the book.Keywords: ECtHR; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); mental disability
This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons w... more This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disability in policymaking and developing models of service delivery that advance human rights.
This paper will analyse the essential legal requirements of the European Convention on Human Righ... more This paper will analyse the essential legal requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights which touch on the lives (and deaths) of people with mental disabilities. It will examine the procedural safeguards which must be followed when involuntarily detaining a person under mental health legislation; access to a court to test the lawfulness of detention; the requirement to be free from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence; and the right to life, including investigation after a death. The paper will discuss some of the factors which explain the relative scarcity of mental disability cases decided by the Strasbourg Court. In conclusion there will be an examination of the role of lawyers and other key players in mental disability, and how stakeholders can move forward to prompt much needed social reform.
In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash wit... more In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash with laws that promulgate rather than penalise prejudice. This article is a reflection on 15 years of human rights litigation and advocacy focused on improving the lives of people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe. The article provides two examples of case-work— Shtukaturov and Stanev —which have had a wider impact than just the lives of the individual applicants and illustrates how creative lawyering can contribute to advancing social justice. The article offers a personal reflection about what it means to work alongside activists striving to give voice to people whom the law has rendered invalid. Like many other marginalised people, children and adults with labels of mental health issues or disabilities face abuse in everyday life, partly as a result of discrimination embedded in law. Normalisation of discrimination nudges the public to welcome segregation and ill-treatment rather than accept difference and celebrate diversity.
Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007
This chapter analyses admission to and discharge (release) from psychiatric institutions. It is p... more This chapter analyses admission to and discharge (release) from psychiatric institutions. It is principally concerned with the terms of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its associated case law. This is the area that has attracted the most cases taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) relating to mental disability. The general right to liberty under Article 5(1) is subject to a variety of exceptions. These exceptions are subject to an overriding requirement that they be ‘in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law’. In Winterwerp v. the Netherlands case, the ECtHR held that the validity of continued confinement depends upon the persistence of a disorder of the required severity. As discussed in the chapter, there has been further elaboration regarding these conditions in the context of release.Keywords: ECtHR; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); legal confinement; mental disability; psychiatric institutions; Winterwerp v. the Netherlands case
Background.Human rights violations are commonly experienced by people in psychiatric and social c... more Background.Human rights violations are commonly experienced by people in psychiatric and social care institutions. States and private organizations providing such health and social services must comply with international human rights law. Monitoring of such compliance is increasingly recognized as a vital component in ensuring that rights are respected and violations are brought out in the open, remedied and prevented.Aims.The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) project produced a method to document violations and good practice with the aim of preventing human rights violations and improving general health care practice in psychiatric and social care institutions (www.ithacastudy.eu).Methods.A methodological and implementation study conducted across 15 European countries developed and assessed the ITHACA Toolkit in monitoring visits to 87 mental health organizations.Results.The toolkit is available in 13 European languages and has demonstrated applicab...
Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007
This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapte... more This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapter explains, a case needs to have exhausted effective remedies available in the domestic legal system before applying to Strasbourg. In order to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the applicant must be a ‘victim’ as set out by Article 34 of the ECHR. The chapter discusses the main grounds for declaring a case inadmissible, and describes aspects related to the procedure of taking a case to the ECtHR. In cases concerning people with mental disabilities, there may often be information which is private in nature and which the applicant would not want the public to know about. In such cases, the applicant can request for anonymity or confidentiality to be ensured. The applicant is never at any risk of paying the respondent Government’s costs, even if the Court declares a case inadmissible.Keywords: admissibility; anonymity; confidentiality; domestic proceedings; ECHR; ECtHR; mental disabilities; victim status
Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights, 2020
This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons w... more This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disa...
In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash wit... more In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash with laws that promulgate rather than penalise prejudice. This article is a reflection on 15 years of human rights litigation and advocacy focused on improving the lives of people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe. The article provides two examples of case-work— Shtukaturov and Stanev —which have had a wider impact than just the lives of the individual applicants and illustrates how creative lawyering can contribute to advancing social justice. The article offers a personal reflection about what it means to work alongside activists striving to give voice to people whom the law has rendered invalid. Like many other marginalised people, children and adults with labels of mental health issues or disabilities face abuse in everyday life, partly as a result of discrimination embedded in law. Normalisation of discrimination nudges the public to ...
The book sets out an analysis of how the law is used as a means to remove decision-making rights ... more The book sets out an analysis of how the law is used as a means to remove decision-making rights from people with mental health issues and people with intellectual disabilities. It explains how international law can be used to repatriate these rights.
In this article, I suggest that the January 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (... more In this article, I suggest that the January 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Stanev v. Bulgaria takes us a few steps along the path towards freedom. Rather like a Franz Kafka novel, the judgment is a story about an ordinary person who became entangled in a web of antiquated laws and perverse processes, and who ended up in a grotesque situation from which he found it impossible to extricate himself. Rusi Stanev, the applicant, is an extraordinarily tenacious man who faced State absurdity and abuse, and who risked retribution by putting Bulgaria in the dock at the ECtHR in Strasbourg, and won. His life and his case are unique, but his is the voice of millions of others’ that we will never hear. They are — like he was — locked away and silenced.
Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007
This chapter deals mainly with safeguards required during the process of depriving someone of leg... more This chapter deals mainly with safeguards required during the process of depriving someone of legal capacity, appointing a guardian, contesting decisions made by a guardian, displacing a guardian and reviewing the need for being deprived of decision-making powers. Guardianship issues are human rights issues. The chapter focuses on problematic aspects of guardianship systems and offers some insights through the lens of the ECHR. It offers guidance on how the Recommendation can be used by litigants, lawyers and judges to support Convention arguments in future cases in domestic courts and at the Strasbourg Court. The difficulty from a guardianship perspective is how to create a system that will have sufficient human rights protections, but at the same time will have enough flexibility. The chapter examines typical guardianship proceedings, and makes some suggestions as to how the Court may deal with these issues in future cases.Keywords: guardianship; human rights; legal capacity; supported decision-making
Background/Objectives: The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) Too... more Background/Objectives: The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) Toolkit has recently been developed by a consortium from across 15 EU countries, funded by the European Commission. The ITHACA Toolkit provides a clear and practical way to monitor human rights and general health care in mental health facilities.Methods: In developing the ITHACA Toolkit service users were consulted and employed at all stages. Over 100 service users\u2019 participated in the focus groups which were conducted in each country. A key component of this consultation was to build service user capacity and involvement.Results: The toolkit was designed by services users, human rights experts, psychiatrists, psychologists and social scientists. It has been successfully field tested in 87 sites across 15 countries, covering a wide range of mental health care settings and can identify both human rights violations and examples of good practice in protecting, respecting and fulfilling the rights of persons with mental disabilities.Discussion/Conclusions: The ITHACA Toolkit is closely based upon the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This lecture will present the development and the final version of the ITHACA Toolkit, which is now available in the following languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovak, and Turkish. For full details of the ITHACA Toolkit, please go to our website at www.ithaca-study.eu.Funding: European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Policy (DG SANCO)
This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapte... more This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapter explains, a case needs to have exhausted effective remedies available in the domestic legal system before applying to Strasbourg. In order to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the applicant must be a ‘victim’ as set out by Article 34 of the ECHR. The chapter discusses the main grounds for declaring a case inadmissible, and describes aspects related to the procedure of taking a case to the ECtHR. In cases concerning people with mental disabilities, there may often be information which is private in nature and which the applicant would not want the public to know about. In such cases, the applicant can request for anonymity or confidentiality to be ensured. The applicant is never at any risk of paying the respondent Government’s costs, even if the Court declares a case inadmissible.Keywords: admissibility; anonymity; confidentiality; domestic proceedings; ECHR; ECtHR; mental disabilities; victim status
Mental disability has come of age as a subject of concern under the European Convention on Human ... more Mental disability has come of age as a subject of concern under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Between 2000 and 2004, there were over 40 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) relating to mental disability or to detention in psychiatric and related facilities. In some areas, such as the law relating to detention of individuals with mental health difficulties, it is possible now to speak of a jurisprudence of the Court. The European Court has in recent years made considerable progress in the protection of the rights of people with mental disabilities, and as the core of the book shows, there is potential for a good deal more. This introductory chapter also outlines the content available in other chapters of the book.Keywords: ECtHR; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); mental disability
This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons w... more This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disability in policymaking and developing models of service delivery that advance human rights.
This paper will analyse the essential legal requirements of the European Convention on Human Righ... more This paper will analyse the essential legal requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights which touch on the lives (and deaths) of people with mental disabilities. It will examine the procedural safeguards which must be followed when involuntarily detaining a person under mental health legislation; access to a court to test the lawfulness of detention; the requirement to be free from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence; and the right to life, including investigation after a death. The paper will discuss some of the factors which explain the relative scarcity of mental disability cases decided by the Strasbourg Court. In conclusion there will be an examination of the role of lawyers and other key players in mental disability, and how stakeholders can move forward to prompt much needed social reform.
In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash wit... more In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash with laws that promulgate rather than penalise prejudice. This article is a reflection on 15 years of human rights litigation and advocacy focused on improving the lives of people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe. The article provides two examples of case-work— Shtukaturov and Stanev —which have had a wider impact than just the lives of the individual applicants and illustrates how creative lawyering can contribute to advancing social justice. The article offers a personal reflection about what it means to work alongside activists striving to give voice to people whom the law has rendered invalid. Like many other marginalised people, children and adults with labels of mental health issues or disabilities face abuse in everyday life, partly as a result of discrimination embedded in law. Normalisation of discrimination nudges the public to welcome segregation and ill-treatment rather than accept difference and celebrate diversity.
Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007
This chapter analyses admission to and discharge (release) from psychiatric institutions. It is p... more This chapter analyses admission to and discharge (release) from psychiatric institutions. It is principally concerned with the terms of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its associated case law. This is the area that has attracted the most cases taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) relating to mental disability. The general right to liberty under Article 5(1) is subject to a variety of exceptions. These exceptions are subject to an overriding requirement that they be ‘in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law’. In Winterwerp v. the Netherlands case, the ECtHR held that the validity of continued confinement depends upon the persistence of a disorder of the required severity. As discussed in the chapter, there has been further elaboration regarding these conditions in the context of release.Keywords: ECtHR; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); legal confinement; mental disability; psychiatric institutions; Winterwerp v. the Netherlands case
Background.Human rights violations are commonly experienced by people in psychiatric and social c... more Background.Human rights violations are commonly experienced by people in psychiatric and social care institutions. States and private organizations providing such health and social services must comply with international human rights law. Monitoring of such compliance is increasingly recognized as a vital component in ensuring that rights are respected and violations are brought out in the open, remedied and prevented.Aims.The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) project produced a method to document violations and good practice with the aim of preventing human rights violations and improving general health care practice in psychiatric and social care institutions (www.ithacastudy.eu).Methods.A methodological and implementation study conducted across 15 European countries developed and assessed the ITHACA Toolkit in monitoring visits to 87 mental health organizations.Results.The toolkit is available in 13 European languages and has demonstrated applicab...
Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007
This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapte... more This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapter explains, a case needs to have exhausted effective remedies available in the domestic legal system before applying to Strasbourg. In order to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the applicant must be a ‘victim’ as set out by Article 34 of the ECHR. The chapter discusses the main grounds for declaring a case inadmissible, and describes aspects related to the procedure of taking a case to the ECtHR. In cases concerning people with mental disabilities, there may often be information which is private in nature and which the applicant would not want the public to know about. In such cases, the applicant can request for anonymity or confidentiality to be ensured. The applicant is never at any risk of paying the respondent Government’s costs, even if the Court declares a case inadmissible.Keywords: admissibility; anonymity; confidentiality; domestic proceedings; ECHR; ECtHR; mental disabilities; victim status
Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights, 2020
This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons w... more This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disa...
In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash wit... more In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash with laws that promulgate rather than penalise prejudice. This article is a reflection on 15 years of human rights litigation and advocacy focused on improving the lives of people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe. The article provides two examples of case-work— Shtukaturov and Stanev —which have had a wider impact than just the lives of the individual applicants and illustrates how creative lawyering can contribute to advancing social justice. The article offers a personal reflection about what it means to work alongside activists striving to give voice to people whom the law has rendered invalid. Like many other marginalised people, children and adults with labels of mental health issues or disabilities face abuse in everyday life, partly as a result of discrimination embedded in law. Normalisation of discrimination nudges the public to ...
The book sets out an analysis of how the law is used as a means to remove decision-making rights ... more The book sets out an analysis of how the law is used as a means to remove decision-making rights from people with mental health issues and people with intellectual disabilities. It explains how international law can be used to repatriate these rights.
In this article, I suggest that the January 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (... more In this article, I suggest that the January 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Stanev v. Bulgaria takes us a few steps along the path towards freedom. Rather like a Franz Kafka novel, the judgment is a story about an ordinary person who became entangled in a web of antiquated laws and perverse processes, and who ended up in a grotesque situation from which he found it impossible to extricate himself. Rusi Stanev, the applicant, is an extraordinarily tenacious man who faced State absurdity and abuse, and who risked retribution by putting Bulgaria in the dock at the ECtHR in Strasbourg, and won. His life and his case are unique, but his is the voice of millions of others’ that we will never hear. They are — like he was — locked away and silenced.
Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007
This chapter deals mainly with safeguards required during the process of depriving someone of leg... more This chapter deals mainly with safeguards required during the process of depriving someone of legal capacity, appointing a guardian, contesting decisions made by a guardian, displacing a guardian and reviewing the need for being deprived of decision-making powers. Guardianship issues are human rights issues. The chapter focuses on problematic aspects of guardianship systems and offers some insights through the lens of the ECHR. It offers guidance on how the Recommendation can be used by litigants, lawyers and judges to support Convention arguments in future cases in domestic courts and at the Strasbourg Court. The difficulty from a guardianship perspective is how to create a system that will have sufficient human rights protections, but at the same time will have enough flexibility. The chapter examines typical guardianship proceedings, and makes some suggestions as to how the Court may deal with these issues in future cases.Keywords: guardianship; human rights; legal capacity; supported decision-making
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