Treating Refugee Victims of Torture: The Rocky Mountain Survivors Program

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Van Arsdale
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Theory To Practice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rights Issues

This paper, and indeed the project it represents, is about moving from theory to practice. It is about doing so under trying circumstances—certainly for the professionals involved, but more for the clients and intended beneficiaries. It is about a search for "the right stuff" in one community's quest to better serve refugees and immigrants, particularly those that have been severely traumatized and/or tortured. At the broadest level, it is about applying anthropology and psychology as part of a multifaceted effort to deal with mental health and human rights issues.

scholarly journals The Right to Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Psichologija ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 38-52
Author(s):  
Neringa Grigutytė ◽  
Karilė Levickaitė ◽  
Ugnė Grigaitė
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
General Population ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
The Right

The relationship between mental health and human rights is integral and interdependent. There are clinical, social and economic reasons, as well as moral and legal obligations to advance mental health care as fundamental to human rights. Significant considerations for this matter are especially crucial when addressing the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. The aim of this research study was to analyse the responses to the ongoing pandemic, concerning the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and the right to the mental health of the general population, in Lithuania. Methods included online surveys, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. This article presents the results as a complex picture containing lived experiences of mental health difficulties of the general population, barriers to accessing the needed support and services, as well as analysis of violations of human rights. It also highlights the need for more research on the long-term consequences of the pandemic and lockdowns on the mental health of the population; also, on how human rights of persons with mental health conditions, and especially those with psychosocial disabilities, can be better ensured and protected in Lithuania. 

Mental Health and Human Rights: Brazil and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Jurisprudence

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-260
Author(s):  
Carla Aparecida Arena Ventura
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Health Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mental Health Policies

International human rights instruments are important to mental health as a source of international scrutiny of mental health policies and practices. Nevertheless, people with mental illnesses continue to have their rights violated in different settings and situations. The aim of this research was to bring to light human rights violations targeting persons with mental illness judged by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), focusing on countries that ratified or adhered to the American Convention on Human Rights and accepted the jurisdiction of IACHR. Data were collected at the IACHR site through the reading of the Court’s judgments. The research resulted in the case of Damião Ximenes Lopes v. Brazil, which was analysed based on the international and regional human rights framework, specifically focusing on the right to health and mental health, highlighting the intersection between this framework and the mental health law, policies and services in Brazil.

Universal rights and mental illness in Ireland

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 114-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Rush ◽  
Declan Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Promotional Campaign ◽  
The Right ◽  
International Conventions

The human rights group Amnesty International has recently expanded the range of rights it promotes to include the right of persons with mental illness to enjoy the best available mental health care. The Irish section of Amnesty has launched a report and promotional campaign on the rights of persons with mental illness, using internationally recognised norms of best practice reflected in international conventions that generate binding legal obligations of the Irish state. The report is critical of piecemeal reforms and inadequate resourcing of mental health services, and calls for a more comprehensive implementation of the recommendations of domestic and international reports.

Articulating key obligations of states to persons deprived of liberty under a right to health framework: the Philippine case study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Edson P. Yarcia ◽  
Jan Michael Alexandre C. Bernadas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Right

Purpose This paper aims to examine key obligations of states to persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) under the right to health framework in the context of COVID-19. As a case study, it also describes the state of health in places of detention in the Philippines during the pandemic, with an end view of providing granular recommendations for prison policy reforms. Design/methodology/approach Relevant rules under international human rights law related to places of detention were thematically analyzed to articulate the scope of the right to health of PDLs. To describe the state of places of detention in the Philippines, this paper relied on archival research of news from selected local mainstream and specialized media. Findings The right to health framework provides a foundation for the response to COVID-19 in places of detention. Key concerns include increase in the number of infections, vulnerabilities in physical and mental health, and the spread of infection among correctional staff. Long-standing structural constraints and limited health information compound the threat of COVID-19. The Philippines must comply with its human rights obligations to PDLs to effectively address COVID-19-related concerns. Practical implications Policy reforms in Philippine places of detention must include application of community standards on physical and mental health, implementation of emergency release and application of non-custodial measures for long-term prison decongestion. Originality/value This is one of the few papers to analyze human rights in health care in places of detention during a pandemic, as nuanced in the context of the Philippines.

The Environment, a Changing Climate, and Planetary Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 417-438
Author(s):  
Alexandra L. Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Planetary Health ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Right

This chapter addresses the dynamic balance between human health and the environment, with a focus on the global health and human rights threat of climate change. International legal efforts to mitigate environmental damage and climate change—from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the 2015 Paris Agreement—have been limited in addressing the threats posed to global health. Human rights will be necessary to examine efforts to mitigate and respond to these cataclysmic threats, including rising temperatures and extreme weather events, air pollution, infectious diseases, food, water and sanitation, and mental health. Facing this unprecedented threat, advocates can draw from past advances, including the use of litigation to protect human rights affected by the environment, the realization of the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, and the implementation of human rights as a foundation of planetary health.

Chronic Illness

2020 ◽  
pp. 285-306
Author(s):  
Oliver Lewis ◽  
Soumitra Pathare
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
The Right ◽  
Models Of Service Delivery

This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disability in policymaking and developing models of service delivery that advance human rights.

Human Rights Advocacy in Global Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-154
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Amon ◽  
Eric Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
The Right

This chapter presents an overview of health and human rights advocacy and describes a broad framework and the diverse strategies used by human rights advocates to advance their goals. Based upon documenting abuses, raising awareness, building coalitions, and engaging communities, human rights advocacy seeks to ensure that government laws, policies, and practices respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health of all. These rights arguments and advocacy strategies, first developed in response to the HIV epidemic, have become the basis for broader right to health campaigns. Health-related human rights advocacy, beyond specific strategies, seeks to elevate the voices of people affected by human rights violations, analyze structural barriers, and identify obligations and responsibilities. Focusing on the strategies and tools that human rights advocates use in documenting rights abuses, raising awareness, and seeking change, it is necessary to examine new advocacy partnerships and approaches for evaluating advocacy efforts.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 8 Justiciability of Human Rights for Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flood Colleen M ◽  
Thomas Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines both the power and limitations of litigation as a means of facilitating accountability for the advancement of public health. While almost half of the world’s constitutions now contain a justiciable right to health, the impact of litigation has been mixed. Judicial accountability has, in some cases, advanced state obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health, but in other cases, litigation has threatened the solidarity undergirding public health systems. There is significant country-to-country variation in interpreting health-related human rights, as well as differing views of the proper role of courts in interpreting and enforcing these rights. Surveying regional human rights systems and national judicial efforts to address health and human rights, it is necessary to analyze how courts have approached—and how they should approach—litigation of the right to health and health-related human rights to improve health for all.

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