Janet Taylor (Co-ordinator Greater Manchester Dyspraxia Adults Action) web
site Http://www.daa.colsal.org.uk has ask me to who experience living with
mental health distress/ill health and are 'survivors'of mental health
systems.
Yours
Colin Revell
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Hagai Aviel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Only ratify the UN Disability Convention if, in doing so, all
mental health laws
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:53:48 +0000
Please snowball this message in newsgroups/blogs and forward it to national
and international organizations for persons with disabilities:
Only ratify the UN Disability Convention if, in doing so, all mental health
laws are abolished
(Resolution Point # 1 of todays General Assembly of the International
Associaton Against Psychiatric Assault)
On 13-Dec-2006 the "Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights
and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities"1 <http://www.iaapa.de/*f> passed
the UN General Assembly. On 30-Feb-2007 governments signed the Convention in
New York. This signature marks the beginning of a political debate about
this convention and its political implications for those countries who
supported the creation of the convention, namely: Afghanistan, Algeria,
Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Chile, China,
Comoros, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland,
France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar,
Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco,
Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation,
San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia,
South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab
Republic, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United
Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United
Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam,
Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
The result of this political process will be that in each of these countries
either the convention will be ratified by its legislating bodies (in
democratic countries: the parliaments) or not be ratified, which would
contradict the prior support of its creation by its government.
Because this convention concerns the human rights of the disabled, it is
crucial to terminate the systematic and wide-spread violation of human
rights sanctioned by law legalizing psychiatric coercive measures,
compulsory hospitalization and forced treatment as well as the arbitrary
prolongation of imprisonment in the forensic unit as punishment. If the
convention is to be ratified and thus become law in these countries without
the psychiatric special laws being invalidated, it would become the opposite
of what it intended: it would become another instrument against the civil
and human rights of all individuals who were psychiatrically/medically
slandered as allegedly being "mentally ill". These "diagnoses" are defined
in the convention with the term "disabled" (Article 1, par. 2): "Persons
with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental,
intellectual or sensory impairments … " [Bold and underlining added by us]
The convention explicitly bears down on the legal discrimination of persons
with disabilities (Article 2, par. 3):
"… Discrimination on the basis of disability" means any distinction,
exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or
effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on
an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in
the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. …"
The convention thereby explicitly forbids the possibilities which the
national constitutions leave open by annulling constitutional rights with
special laws if they have a "disability" as criterion. However that is
precisely the case with the Mental Health Laws: the laws legalizing
psychiatric confinement of non-criminals as well as the special forensic
laws of the Penal Code have as an essential requirement a psychiatric
assessment and/or a compulsory examination for this. They must therefore be
abolished because they contradict the convention.
Moreover, in Article 12 the convention obligates a ratifying state as
follows:
Equal recognition before the law
1. States Parties reaffirm that persons with disabilities have the right to
recognition everywhere as persons before the law.
2. States Parties shall recognize that persons with disabilities enjoy legal
capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.
Thus any forced guardianship and the compulsory hospitalization, including
coercive treatment which is thereby made possible, must be terminated. No
longer can the words "protection" and the alleged "well-being" of the
persons concerned serve as a cynical pretext for such measures.
To support this legal interpretation of the convention we recommend
commissioning an expertise by lawyers specialized in international Human
Rights, taking into account the specific national laws.
We call on organizations for persons with disabilities to urgently take a
stance against a ratification of the convention by the national legislators
if it does not fulfill that which it pledges: legally binding freedom from
discrimination. Legal discrimination is exercised in its most radical,
brutal and abhorrent form by the laws legalizing coercive psychiatry. Should
organizations for persons with disabilities nevertheless press for a rapid
ratification because they anticipate the effects of positive discrimination
from the convention, a ratification without the abolishment of coercive
psychiatry would come at an intolerable price: the continuation of the
barbarity of coercive psychiatry with its torture-like practices and the
denial of self-determination by individuals who were slandered in the
psychiatric-medical jargon as alleged "mentally ill".
A ratification which maintains the Mental Health Laws would make the
convention a cynical caricature: The convention would become an additional
instrument of camouflage and cover-up for psychiatric violence. It would
become a part of the problem instead of its solution.
----
1. Original text of the convention:
http://untreaty.un.org/English/notpubl/IV_15_english.pdf
<http://untreaty.un.org/English/notpubl/IV_15_english.pdf%20>
For more information on IAAPA see http://www.iaapa.ch
Hagai Aviel/Chairperson
Israeli Association Against Psychiatric Assault
www.iaapa.org.il
for 'International Association Against Psychiatric Assault' see: iaapa.ch
_________________________________________________________________
Solve the Conspiracy and win fantastic prizes.
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