Equality framework emerging from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its implications for mental health treatment interventions

With widespread adherence to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)—which entered into force May 2008 and garnered over 100 ratifications, making it the most widely ratified treaty in the shortest amount of time—the human rights of people with psychosocial disabilities (people diagnosed with mental illness), particularly their right to be treated without discrimination on an equal basis with others, is gaining global recognition. The CRPD ushers a paradigm shift in our approach to disability that is being felt around the world. While traditionally disability has been seen as a medical condition to be remedied or a social disadvantage worthy of charity, the CRPD conceptualizes rights violations at the core of the often pervasive isolation and segregation of persons with disabilities and translates them into enforceable rights. The individual no longer bears the responsibility of adapting to society; rather society must change—removing structural, communicational, and attitudinal barriers—to make full and meaningful participation by persons with disabilities possible. This paradigm shift has profound implications for mental health treatment interventions, from issues of psychiatric commitment linked with the right to liberty, to informed consent linked with the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment and torture, and the right to be recognized as a person before the law and have one's decision making respected and, where desired, supported. This presentation will introduce the emerging interpretations of the CRPD's human rights protections and their implications for rights-based mental health interventions.