Mental health and human rights: Working in partnership with persons with a lived experience and their families and friends.

Abstract

Byline: Afzal. Javed, M. Amering The concept of human rights increasingly defines the discourse on ethical, moral, and legal frameworks of nations as well as international organizations. Their international and universal character was set out in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reinforced consistently ever since. At the same time, discussions on differences regarding their interpretation and application involve all of us on a daily basis on a political, professional, and personal level. Although human rights are promoted in a wider perspective and all population groups fall under their protection, there are on-going discourses around the world over the human rights needs of individuals diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and those experiencing mental health problems. Reports have confirmed the severity of human rights violations among this group almost in all cultures and countries though there are variations in frequency, intensity or severity. The practices and policies to follow human rights also change from one country to another with a number of concerns for disparities. Recent Historic Firsts In recent years, several historic firsts occurred, which have a strong bearing on the current developments in mental health and human rights: *For the first time in history, the human rights for persons with disabilities were specifically formulated in the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD). This was deemed necessary because persons with disabilities have been denied their human rights on many levels and in all cultures and societies despite the fact that all prior human rights legislation, of course, applies to persons with disabilities in the same way as to every human being. This process of assessing the human rights situation of a particular group of people responding to the documented need for extra attention can be understood in analogy with the formulation of the UN-Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979 or the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 *For the first time in history persons with a lived experience of disability were part of the negotiating process at the United Nations. This brought about a plethora of novel experiences and “New Diplomacy” strategies with remarkable successes and only partly overcome stumble blocks [sup][1] *For the first time in history persons with a lived experience of disabilities from mental health problems (psychosocial disabilities) joined the movement of disability activists and were equal partners in the process of drafting the UN-CRPD. As a result, the convention obliges states to involve persons with disabilities in policy development. Therefore, from now on, people with a lived experience background will as rights-holders be part of the activities of international and national monitoring bodies with regard to UN-CRPD as well as all negotiating processes of international, national or local policies that concern their care and their lives in their communities. Furthermore, the UN-CRPD has a place in history with an exceptionally fast ratification process. By June 2016, 165 States Parties have ratified the UN-CRPD, thereby making it applicable in their countries. The consequent changes in policy and practice of mental health care concern high-as well as low- and middle-income countries.[sup][2] As a majority of people will be experiencing some form of disability either personally or as a family carer or friend at some point in time in their lives and disabilities from mental health problems affect millions of people all around the globe the significance of the claims and consequences of a successful meeting of the obligations of this particular UN-Convention can hardly be overestimated. The Un-Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities The UN-CRPD includes freedom rights, such as the right to be free from exploitation, violence and abuse and requests nondiscrimination in terms of capacity and equal recognition before the law. …