International protection of persons with mental disabilities

Abstract

In International law, the status of persons with mental disabilities is regulated within the framework on the protection of persons with disabilities. Their rights are protected not only by international treaties comprising legal provisions of binding character for the parties but also by means of the so-called "soft law" comprising international documents which are not legally binding. Most of the general and subject specific treaties on human rights do not explicitly deal with the status of persons with disabilities. Only recently have some treaties been made containing legal provisions on special protection of persons with disabilities. The most important treaty of this kind is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in the year 2006. The protection of such persons is regulated in much more detail by "soft law" which includes a number of documents adopted by the UN, the Council of Europe and the European Union. Although most of these documents primarily pertain to the rights and the status of persons with disabilities, there are a few that exclusively deal with the protection of persons with mental disorder.