The Importance of the Relationship
Published 10th October 2007, 12:52pm
The 10th October is World Mental Health Day. The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is “Mental Health in a Changing World: The Impact of Culture and Diversity.”
As Eugene B. Brody, the World Federation for Mental Health’s Senior Consultant explains:
“It is time to renew our commitment to inter-cultural understanding in the service of the intertwined goals of promoting mental health and preserving human rights.”
The significance of the relationship between human rights and mental health is well established in international human rights law. In respect of health generally, the right to the highest attainable standard of health was first enunciated in 1946 in the Constitution of the World Health Organization (“WHO”) and is reiterated in numerous WHO – sponsored declarations, including the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care and the 1998 World Health Declaration. It is recognised in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and, with respect to children, in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. WHO uses a holistic definition of “health”, according to which health does not merely consist of the absence of disease or handicaps but refers to the highest attainable standard of physical, mental and social well-being.
There is also a body of case law that specifically interprets many human rights in a mental health context. For example, international human rights law, which is applicable to the Cayman Islands, provides that:
- Persons suffering from a mental illness must have their detention periodically reviewed by a competent court or tribunal – a failure to do so would breach an individual’s right to liberty.
- In extreme circumstances, the failure to provide medical treatment to a person with a mental illness who has been detained may even amount to “inhuman treatment.”
- Where compulsory treatment is administered, care must also be taken to reconcile the treatment with rights to physical integrity, privacy, freedom of religion, and even the right to life.
Emphasising the local significance of World Mental Health Day, Sara Collins, the HRC’s Chair, noted:
“There are numerous human rights implications which arise when we consider appropriate standards for treatment of mentally ill persons in our society. The issues impact our society in many ways: in the health care system, in prisons, schools and the workplace. The HRC is currently reviewing the regime for the treatment of mentally ill persons in prison in the Cayman Islands, for example. Giving our full attention as a society to these issues and to ensuring that we provide treatment and avoid discrimination, will ensure a better and safer quality of life, not only for those who are ill, but for all of us who live and work with them.”
The HRC understands that mental health initiatives are currently being pursued by both the Ministry of Health and Human Services and Her Majesty’s Cayman Islands Prison Service. The HRC would like to take the opportunity presented by World Mental Health Day to support these entities by offering any assistance necessary to ensure that the outcomes of these initiatives provide full compliance with Cayman’s international human rights obligations and thereby protect the mental health rights of all persons in the Cayman Islands.
If you would like to contact the HRC, please address written correspondence to PO Box 30664, Grand Cayman KY1 1203 or alternatively, emails can be sent to committee@humanrights.ky.
For further information contact: Human Rights Committee