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A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The practice of coercion on the basis of psychosocial disability is plainly discriminatory. This has resulted in a demand from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD Committee) for a paradigm shift away from the traditional biomedical model and a global ban on compulsion...

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Autor principal: Davidson, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Harvard University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32669798
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author Davidson, Laura
author_facet Davidson, Laura
author_sort Davidson, Laura
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description The practice of coercion on the basis of psychosocial disability is plainly discriminatory. This has resulted in a demand from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD Committee) for a paradigm shift away from the traditional biomedical model and a global ban on compulsion in the psychiatric context. However, that has not occurred. This paper considers conflicting pronouncements of the CRPD Committee and other United Nations bodies. Assuming the former’s interpretations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) are accurate, involuntary psychiatric detention and enforced treatment on the basis of psychosocial disability are prima facie discriminatory and unlawful practices. However, dedicated mental health legislation both permits discrimination and protects and enhances rights. This paper proposes a practical way out of the present impasse: the global introduction of interim “holding” legislation lacking full compliance with the CRPD. While imperfect, such a framework would facilitate a move toward a complete ban on psychiatric coercion. The paper outlines four essential ingredients that any interim legislation ought to contain, including clear timebound targets for full CRPD implementation. It concludes by urging the CRPD Committee to take the unprecedented step of issuing a general comment providing reluctant “permission” for the progressive realization of respect for articles 12 and 14 of the CRPD.
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spelling pubmed-73484432020-07-14 A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Davidson, Laura Health Hum Rights Research-Article The practice of coercion on the basis of psychosocial disability is plainly discriminatory. This has resulted in a demand from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD Committee) for a paradigm shift away from the traditional biomedical model and a global ban on compulsion in the psychiatric context. However, that has not occurred. This paper considers conflicting pronouncements of the CRPD Committee and other United Nations bodies. Assuming the former’s interpretations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) are accurate, involuntary psychiatric detention and enforced treatment on the basis of psychosocial disability are prima facie discriminatory and unlawful practices. However, dedicated mental health legislation both permits discrimination and protects and enhances rights. This paper proposes a practical way out of the present impasse: the global introduction of interim “holding” legislation lacking full compliance with the CRPD. While imperfect, such a framework would facilitate a move toward a complete ban on psychiatric coercion. The paper outlines four essential ingredients that any interim legislation ought to contain, including clear timebound targets for full CRPD implementation. It concludes by urging the CRPD Committee to take the unprecedented step of issuing a general comment providing reluctant “permission” for the progressive realization of respect for articles 12 and 14 of the CRPD. Harvard University Press 2020-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7348443/ /pubmed/32669798 Text en Copyright © 2020 Davidson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research-Article
Davidson, Laura
A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
title A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
title_full A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
title_fullStr A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
title_full_unstemmed A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
title_short A Key, Not a Straitjacket: The Case for Interim Mental Health Legislation Pending Complete Prohibition of Psychiatric Coercion in Accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
title_sort key, not a straitjacket: the case for interim mental health legislation pending complete prohibition of psychiatric coercion in accordance with the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
topic Research-Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32669798
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