International human rights standards call for human rights-based approaches in the field of mental health.  Citizens Commission on Human Rights is working to make those rights a reality through the promotion of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) National Affairs Office announces it will be carrying out a promotional campaign, launching on International Human Rights Day, to raise awareness of the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights.  This Declaration, like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that inspired it, lays out fundamental human rights, but as specific to the field of mental health.  International Human Rights Day marks the signing of the UDHR on December 10, 1948.

All human rights organizations set forth codes by which they align their purposes and activities. The Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights articulates the guiding principles and goals for the field of mental health to which CCHR adheres.

The mental health rights in the Declaration include the right to be treated with dignity, the right to fully informed consent to mental health treatment based on the full disclosure of risks, as well as the right to refuse consent, and the right to know what alternative treatments are available.  The Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights sets forth these and other fundamental mental health human rights to which CCHR believes everyone is entitled.

International human rights standards call for changes in mental health approaches to ensure human rights are respected.  In 2017, Dr. Dainius Pūras, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, called for “a sea change” in mental health care around the world to replace “outdated practices that violate human rights.” 

More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidance in 2021 for promoting a rights-based approach to mental health.  WHO observed that “an entrenched overreliance on the biomedical model in which the predominant focus of care is on diagnosis, medication and symptom reduction…hinder[s] progress towards the full realization of a human rights-based approach.”  It called for mental health systems and services to align with international human rights standards, including the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which aims to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons with disabilities.

CCHR is making the Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights more widely known.  Because adequate protections for human rights in the field of mental health are vital, CCHR urges that these rights be recognized by the widespread adoption of this Declaration.