August 26, 2013
CHRUSP activities 2012-2013
HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESSES:
1. As a result of our advocacy, the Special Rapporteur on Torture called for an absolute ban on nonconsensual forced psychiatric interventions and also declared that mental health detention was unjustified, including by a motivation to protect the safety of the person or others.
2. As a result of our advocacy, the Human Rights Committee asked the U.S. to defend its practice of forced psychiatric drugging.
Other international processes look hopeful, although certain treaty bodies, notably the Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee, continue to resist the standards of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disablities (CRPD) and are adhering to the outdated MI-Principles approach of "safeguards" to regulate psychiatric detention and forced interventions. We are working with WNUSP to build capacity in relation to the CRPD standards and international human rights advocacy and continuing to increase our network of allies.
In the U.S. we are taking a principled stand opposing reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs) attached to the proposed ratification of the CRPD, which discriminate against people labeled with psychiatric diagnoses and contravene provisions of the CRPD and customary international law of treaties. We have contributed significantly to raising awareness on psychiatric profiling/scapegoating in relation to gun control, and to bringing people together who agree that mental health laws authorizing psychiatric detention and forced interventions must be repealed.
Thanks to donations, CHRUSP was able to purchase a subscription to LexisNexis that allows us to conduct legal research on U.S. laws. This is being used to compare U.S. laws with the requirements of the CRPD and evaluate the potential to use existing laws to promote CRPD standards.
Detailed Report
International Advocacy
In 2012, CHRUSP continued to provide technical support for the international advocacy of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry including a number of submissions to the United Nations and participation in UN meetings. These included:
- A submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, on the Right to Health (11 January 2012).
- Several submissions to the Intergovernmental Expert Group on the review of the Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners (24 January 2012, 7 December 2012 and 11 December 2012); participation in expert group meeting 31 January - 2 February 2012. This process has been frustrating because the main group of NGOs involved has shut WNUSP out of the discussions and refused to take on board the requirements of the CRPD. Nevertheless we are heartened by support from within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and by the refusal of at least one well known NGO to endorse a document that was non-inclusive of the disability community.
- Development of a discussion paper on the policy issues at the intersection of the mental health system and the criminal justice system (10 February 2012).
- Recommendations for monitoring of psychiatric institutions, and of the rights of people with psychosocial disabilities in prisons, under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) (10 February 2012); participation in a meeting of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), 20-24 February 2012.
- Submission to Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for Day of General Discussion on accessibility (20 March 2012).
- Participation in an expert meeting on the rights of older persons, 29-31 May 2012; and in the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing, 21-24 August 2012. This work addresses the overlap between aging and disability and the importance of upholding CRPD standards that already protect older persons from disability-based forms of discrimination such as institutionalization and deprivation of legal capacity, as well as the prohibition of forced drugging and electroshock which is widespread. It is a growing area of interest for WNUSP.
- Joint submission of WNUSP, Inclusion International (II), Down Syndrome International (DSI) and International Disability Alliance (IDA) to the Human Rights Committee, for draft General Comment on liberty and security of the person (24 September 2012), arguing to maintain the CRPD standards on liberty and security of the person (Article 14) and living independently in the community (Article 19).
- Joint submission of WNUSP, European Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP), IDA and Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) to the Special Rapporteur on Torture, on torture in health care settings; also CHRUSP individual submissions and participation in expert meeting on 13-14 December. 2012. This advocacy resulted in the Special Rapporteur's historic call for an absolute ban on nonconsensual psychiatric interventions in his report of 1 February 2013, and his declaration on 4 March 2013 that in his opinion, detention on mental health grounds is unjustified, including by a motivation to protect the safety of the person or others.
CHRUSP addressed the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to express concerns about some of its concluding observations (19 November 2012).
CHRUSP provided technical support to WNUSP by drafting an amicus brief for the European Court of Human Rights in a case dealing with forced neuroleptic drugging (Zock v. Germany), but the case was settled by the parties and so our brief was not ultimately submitted.
Training, Consultation and Other Technical Support
CHRUSP drafted material that was used by Mad Pride Ireland in a submission to a national consultation on legal capacity, 28 February 2012.
CHRUSP conducted human rights training events in the U.S., including a 2 1/2 day training on human rights advocacy for Voices of the Heart, Inc. (VOH), a user/survivor organization based in Glens Falls, NY, 24-26 April 2012; a Human Rights Celebration of VOH, 20 September 2012; and a 1-day training at the Alternatives Conference, 10-14 October 2012. The VOH activities in particular were well attended, and all contributed to raising level of awareness and knowledge about human rights and the CRPD standards in the U.S. psychiatric survivor movement.
CHRUSP President Tina Minkowitz presented lectures and workshops at international venues including a conference on legal capacity and persons with psychosocial disabilities sponsored by CELS, a human rights NGO in Argentina, 10-11 May 2012 and a meeting of the Asia Pacific Disability Forum, 26-30 October 2012 in Incheon, Korea; and was a featured lecturer atthe law school of Sungkyunkwan University, 30 October 2012 in Seoul. While in Argentina, CHRUSP met with user/survivor advocates forming a new organization, Foro por la dignidad del riesgo. While in Korea, CHRUSP met several times with user/survivor activists who are members of KAMI and who organized the other activities; and participated in a meeting of a multi-stakeholder working group on legal capacity.
The presentation given in Argentina was later used by WNUSP in a roundtable discussion on legal capacity held in conjunction with the CRPD Conference of States Parties, 13 September 2012.
U.S. Advocacy
CHRUSP continued to participate in the Campaign to Repeal Mental Health Laws and to provide this campaign with technical support. RMHL continued to garner support through its Facebook group and website
RMHL responded to the scapegoating of people labeled with psychiatric diagnosis following the December 14 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, by issuing both a short statement and a longer policy-oriented statement, both posted on its website.
CHRUSP submitted a letter to U.S. Senators opposing certain reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs) that have been attached to the proposed ratification of the CRPD. The letter was endorsed by 23 other human rights defenders for its initial distribution (30 July 2012), and later secured support from a total of 177 organizations and individuals (3 December 2012). Ten international solidarity messages were also received and posted on the CHRUSP website.
CHRUSP submitted comments to the National Council on Disability including recommendations that NCD hold hearings on implementation of its earlier recommendations to "move towards a totally voluntary mental health system" (From Privileges to Rights, January 2000), hold hearings on the proposed RUDs to the CRPD (23 October 2012).
CHRUSP led the submission of an initial civil society report on the United States to the Human Rights Committee, a committee of experts that monitors the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 28 December 2012. The submission, endorsed by Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights), Voices of the Heart, MindFreedom International, the Campaign to Repeal Mental Health Laws, WNUSP and IDA, focused on both forced psychiatric interventions (including in prisons), and scapegoating in the context of gun control measures. CHRUSP President Tina Minkowitz serves on the ICCPR Task Force of the U.S. Human Rights Network, coordinating advocacy and sharing information with other NGOs.
CHRUSP continued to explore the possibilities for discussion of law reform on legal capacity, and drafted materials that could be used to initiate such a discussion. The climate for reform is difficult in the U.S., and most advocates interested in alternatives to guardianship are not willing to address the full implications of the CRPD, which prohibits substituted decision-making and requires all support to respect the individual's autonomy, will and preferences.
Scholarly Papers and Blogs
CHRUSP President Tina Minkowitz published a paper, Norms and Implementation of CRPD Article 12, in English and Spanish versions in the Working Paper Series of the Social Science Research Network. For all Tina's papers on SSRN, see
Tina inaugurated a blog on the Mad In America website, called Mad Law for Human Rights, with several posts with titles such as "Bringing Human Rights Home," "Reparations: It is Conceivable" and "Why Do So Few People Know that CRPD Prohibits Forced Psychiatry?"
Tina further developed a blog inaugurated in 2011, This blog is designed to explore cultural and philosophical issues in law and legal issues as well as the background for these issues in lived experience.
Beginning of 2013 and Looking Forward
In the beginning of 2013 CHRUSP became more involved with the issue of psychiatric profiling, i.e. the scapegoating of people labeled with psychiatric diagnoses in measures related to gun control, collaborating with others in a campaign to Stop Psychiatric Profiling, see
CHRUSP President Tina Minkowitz along with another advocate, Maxima Kalitventsev, attended the Human Rights Committee meeting in March to promote our civil society report and suggested questions. We succeeded in having the Committee ask the U.S. to defend its practice of forced psychiatric drugging, see Work continues on the second phase of the report and attending the Committee's meeting in October when it will issue Concluding Observations on the U.S. report.
CHRUSP issued another letter opposing the reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs) attached to the proposed ratification of the CRPD by the U.S. Senate, making additional arguments about their impermissibility under international law. This letter has so far been signed by 20 organizations including CHRUSP and 18 individuals.
CHRUSP continued to contribute technical support to the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, both directly in international advocacy and in supporting a process of internal capacity-building, see Advocacy continued in particular with the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Human Rights Committee (on the draft General Comment on liberty and security of the person), the review of the Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners, and the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing; an amicus brief to the European Court of Human Rights was submitted on rights of people with psychosocial disabilities subjected to criminal proceedings (Koroviny v. Russia). Work on the rights of older persons also was conducted in relation to a treaty being drafted by the Organization of American States.
CHRUSP contributed to a series of expert presentations on legal capacity and the freedom from forced psychiatric interventions held in relation to a law reform initiative in Chisinau, Moldova, 3-4 June 2013.
Upcoming in the fall of 2013 are a visit to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and participation in the next meeting on the Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners, as well as returning to the Human Rights Committee in October. When time permits we still aim to develop training materials and curricula, and to return to research and analysis of U.S. laws in light of the CRPD.