Beyond Moral Claims: A Human Rights Approach in Mental Health

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAWRENCE O. GOSTIN
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Mental Disabilities ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Moral Claims

Human rights law is a powerful, but often neglected, tool in advancing the rights and freedoms of persons with mental disabilities. International law may seem marginal or unimportant in developed countries with democratic and constitutional systems of their own. Yet, even democracies often resist reform of mental health law and policy, and domestic courts do not always compel changes necessary for the rights and welfare of persons with mental disabilities. Additionally, human rights are obviously important for countries without democratic and constitutional systems because they may provide the only genuine safeguard against abuse of persons with mental disabilities ostensibly based on political, social, or cultural justifications.

Ireland

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eilionóir Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Employment Equality ◽  
The Impact

Ireland’s constitution adopts a dualist approach to international law. It is in a unique position as a state which has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), but one which is obliged to adhere to the provisions of the CRPD in EU law, by virtue of the EU’s conclusion of the CRPD in 2010. To date, the CRPD has been referenced in a number of cases before the Irish courts in the context of employment equality law and mental health law. This chapter examines the extent of the impact that the CRPD can have on the judgments of domestic courts on disability rights in advance of the state’s ratification of the Convention.

scholarly journals Human Rights Theory and Comparative International Law Scholarship

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher McCrudden
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Domestic Use ◽  
International Human

An account of what we know about the use by domestic courts of international human rights law is identified, based on the findings in this volume and earlier work on the use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). From that, three aspects of the domestic functions of international human rights treaties are tentatively identified as particularly significant: international human rights law is only partly internationally-directed; domestic courts very seldom appear to be acting as ‘agents’ of international human rights law; and ‘human dignity’ (sometimes by itself, sometimes alongside ‘autonomy’ and ‘equality’) acts as an important meta-principle in the domestic use of international human rights law. The implications these functions have for normative theorising about human rights, in particular practice-dependent theories of human rights, is considered, and a theory of human rights law consistent with this practice is identified.

Establishing human rights protections in postdisaster contexts

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Hurst, JD
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
The Right ◽  
Response Policy

Postdisaster environments are proven battlegrounds for human rights violations, and a binding international instrument speaking directly to the right to postdisaster human rights protections is a critical and necessary strategy in international disaster response and recovery efforts. This article encourages the development of an international instrument crafted to specifically address human rights protections in postdisaster contexts, founded in international human rights law and policy, and invoking the authority of international law bodies, which can also be used to further refine US emergency response policy.

Framing Human Rights in Global Health Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mason Meier ◽  
Lawrence O. Gostin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Governance Institutions

This chapter frames the implementation of human rights law through global health governance. Global governance institutions have sought to translate human rights into public policy, shifting from the development of health-related rights under international law to the implementation of these normative standards in global policies, programs, and practices. This shift toward an “era of implementation” across an expanding global health governance landscape looks beyond the traditional “human rights system” in implementing human rights for global health. Analyzing human rights as part of global health law, this chapter examines how human rights have become a framework for global governance, with institutions of global health governance seeking to “mainstream” human rights across all organizational actions. This chapter concludes that there is a need for institutional analysis to compare organizational approaches conducive to the implementation of health-related human rights.

The Role of Domestic Courts in International Human Rights Law: The Constitutional Court of Colombia and Free, Prior and Informed Consent

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-381
Author(s):  
José Parra
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
International Human

The internalization of international law by domestic courts is central to the effective implementation of international human rights law. This is particularly true for emerging rights rooted in soft law. In this regard, indigenous peoples’ rights have significantly expanded in international law over the past 20 years, essentially in the form of soft law. As a case study, the review of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Colombia illustrates ‘progressive’ interpretation of soft law, notably on free, prior and informed consent, which is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Thus, domestic courts not only implement international human rights law, but they also foster its development.

Crime-Preventing Neurointerventions and the Law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Forsberg
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Mental Health Legislation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
Health Legislation

Anti-libidinal interventions (ALIs) are a type of crime-preventing neurointervention (CPN) already in use in many jurisdictions. This chapter examines different types of legal regimes under which ALIs might be provided to sex offenders. The types of legal regimes examined are dedicated statutes that directly provide for ALI use, consensual ALI provision under general medical law principles, mental health legislation providing for ALI use (exemplified by the mental health regime in England and Wales), and European human rights law as it pertains to ALI provision. The chapter considers what we might learn from ALIs in respect of likely or possible arrangements for the provision of other CPNs, and draws attention to some ethical issues raised by each of these types of regime, worth keeping in mind when considering arrangements for CPN provision.

The Idea of International Human Rights Law

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Wheatley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Moral Concept ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human ◽  
Fragmentation Of International Law

International Human Rights Law has emerged as an academic subject in its own right, separate from, but still related to, International Law. This book explains the distinctive nature of the new discipline by examining the influence of the moral concept of human rights on general international law. Rather than make use of moral philosophy or political theory, the work explains the term ‘human rights’ by examining its usage in international law practice, on the understanding that words are given meaning through their use. Relying on complexity theory to make sense of the legal practice in the United Nations, the core human rights treaties, and customary international law, The Idea of International Human Rights Law shows how a moral concept of human rights emerged, and then influenced the international law doctrine and practice on human rights, a fact that explains the fragmentation of international law and the special nature of International Human Rights Law.

In Lieu of a Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Linarelli ◽  
Margot E Salomon ◽  
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Current State ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This chapter recaps the main themes of the volume, ie that the international law of the global economy is in a state of disorder. Claims about the justice, fairness, or benefits of the current state of international law as it relates to the global economy are fanciful. A more credible picture emerges when one considers who is protected, against what, and those relations that are valued and those that are not. Moreover, these claims above all require a suspension of a reflective attitude about what international law actually says and does. When it comes to international economic law, power is masked behind a veil of neutrality when it certainly is not neutral in the interests it protects and offends. As for international human rights law, it overlooks the ways in which it props up extreme capitalism foreclosing the possibility of transformative structural change to neoliberal capitalism. In its most radical areas, human rights norms have been blocked from making demands on the design of the global economy precisely because of their transformative potential. Among the central critiques of international law presented in this book is that international law must be justifiable to those who are subject to it.

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