Early Moves Toward a New UN Convention
The move to create a new United Nations Convention on the rights of disabled persons is at a very early stage.* The first session of the Ad Hoc Committee appointed by the UN to examine the matter was held on 29 July-9 August 2002.** The World Federation for Mental Health was among the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that sent representatives. The exploratory process continues to develop, and the Ad Hoc Committee will hold a second session on 16-27 June 2003.
Considerable interest has been aroused in groups representing people with many types of disability. At its meeting in London last September, the Federation’s Board passed a resolution supporting the initiative to develop the Convention, and urged its members to support the process and take part in regional activities connected with it.
On the small Pacific Island of Palau, First Lady
Debbie Remengesau, took part in the annual World Mental Health Day
candlelight observance on 10 October.
On 12 December the UN NGO Committee on Mental Health, of which WFMH is a member, met in New York to review progress to date, and to consider the interests of those with psychiatric disabilities in a new Convention.
Nancy Wallace, WFMH’s Main Representative at the UN, and Celia Brown, Main Representative for Support Coalition International, jointly convened a program with three speakers who presented different views on the subject.
Maribel Derjani-Bayeh, a social affairs officer in the UN Division for Social Policy and Development, outlined the recent history of UN attention to the rights of disabled persons since it adopted the World Program of Action on Behalf of Disabled Persons in 1992, and the Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities in 1993. She noted that the goal of current preparatory work for the June session is to decide on the issues to be addressed. It is still unclear, for example, whether a new Convention should confirm relevant items already contained in various existing UN instruments, or whether it should identify new items which should be covered. (A legally binding Convention, confirming items in existing UN instruments which are not legally binding, would confer new authority and would therefore have considerable impact even if new topics were not added.)
Nancy Wallace reminded the meeting that the creation of a UN Convention is a government-level activity, a legal process where government representatives and lawyers will draft the language. NGO participation is peripheral to the main action. It usually takes the form of trying to influence government representatives on specific issues, in order to have specific sentences or phrases added to the official draft of the document.
Different Approaches
The two other speakers presented divergent views of issues they felt should be addressed in a Convention. The differences in their outlooks were a reminder that it may be difficult to find a common approach to the matters that should be covered. Judi Chamberlin, a leading advocate in the United States for consumers’ rights and co-chair of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, spoke against involuntary commitment and forced treatment. She said this was discrimination against people with psychiatric disabilities, and that the Convention should require that mental health treatment be offered on a voluntary basis, in the same way that any other illness is treated.
WFMH Main Representative Nancy Wallace (left),
UN official Maribel Derjani-Bayeh,and PAHO
staff member Javier Vasquez at the NGO meeting
Javier Vasquez, a lawyer on the staff of the Pan American Health Organization, presented a different viewpoint based on visits to many institutions with deplorable conditions in Latin America. He is working on an initiative to promote the human rights of persons with psychiatric disabilities, which is being developed with the collaboration of the Organization of American States (particularly with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights). His outlook is affected by familiarity with the situation in less developed countries, a commitment to human rights, and support for the empowerment of consumers. He believes that mental health provisions in a new Convention should contain many specific legal requirements to secure improvements in care. Key among them would be a requirement that initial admission should be short-term, with a guaranteed right to an independent review within a specified time frame. He considers that the establishment of an independent monitoring commission to hear individual complaints is another important need.
During the discussion period Judi Chamberlin said that her organizations are strongly opposed to any approach which accepts the current system of involuntary commitment and makes special provisions for persons with psychiatric disabilities which differ from other types of medical care. Javier Vasquez responded that although he would like to see involuntary commitment used only in exceptional circumstances, the Convention should not ignore the plight of thousands of people who were already in institutions, and whose best chance of improved care was through the establishment of new, legally enforced standards. He felt that insistence on a detailed admissions review process was an essential reform to protect human rights. One recommendation that came out of the discussion was the need for continued dialogue at a future meeting between professionals and consumers on areas of contention.
This debate showed differences of opinion which will be multiplied many times in the approach to the Ad Hoc Committee session in June. A large number of NGOs concerned with various disabilities will put forward their viewpoints. Governments also have widely varying approaches to the rights of disabled persons (and to human rights generally). Among the disabilities reviewed, psychiatric disabilities may not receive major attention. And in the end, a majority of the governments involved in negotiations may decide that a new Convention is not needed, or that it should simply reaffirm measures already adopted by the UN. This newsletter will follow the process, which is likely to be a lengthy one.
– Elena L. Berger
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A UN Convention is an international legally binding document negotiated by governments and adopted by the General Assembly. Individual countries can then ratify the instrument, thereby adopting the measures it contains in their own legal systems. A Convention can play an important role in raising standards around the world on the issues it covers. |
**Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.
See http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/adhoccom.htm