Mental Health and Psychiatric Care

The WHO defines mental health as a “state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”. This definition implies that mental health is reliant on a wide array of factors all of which are enshrined in international human rights law. The relationship between mental health and human rights has at least three parts. First, human rights violations such as torture and displacement negatively affect mental health. Second, mental health practices, such as coercive treatment practices, impact human rights. Third, the advancement of human rights benefits people’s mental health conditions. There are clinical and economic reasons, as well as moral and legal obligations, to advance human rights in mental health care. The Special UN Rapporteur in a report to the UN Human Rights Council (Forty-fourth session, 15 June-3 July 2020) welcomes the international recognition that there is no health without mental health. However, the Rapporteur also emphasises that despite promising trends, there remains a global failure of the status quo to address human rights violations in mental health-care systems.