Human rights and mental disorder: Issues raised in the ECHR

1
Human rights and mental disorder Issues raised
in the ECHR

• Dr Pauline Prior
• Queens University Belfast

2
Protection from misuse of psychiatric examinations

• The manner of carrying out examinations
• Matter v. Slovakia 1999
• The use and misuse of psychiatric examinations in
  criminal proceedings
• Luberti v. Italy 1984

3
The right of detained individuals to medical
assessment and review

• Conditions to be fulfilled for compulsory
  treatment
• Winterwerp v. the Netherlands 1979
• A challenge to the review condition
• X v. the UK 1981
• Thynne, Wilson, Gunnell v. the UK 1989
• Implementation of review decisions
• Johnson v. the UK 1997

4
The right of offenders with mental disorders to
appropriate treatment

• Quality of care and treatment
• X. v. the UK 1985
• E. v. Norway 1990
• Johnson v. the UK 1997
• Appropriate place of detention
• Ashingdane v. the UK 1985
• Aerts v. Belgium 1998

5
The right to family life (for children and
parents)

• Children have the right to be protected
• EP. V. Italy 1999
• Even if the parent later recovers mental health
• L., H. and A. v. the UK 1984
• EP. V. Italy 1999

6
The right to family life (for children and
parents) continued

• Parents have a right to bond (the importance of
  access
• B. v. the UK 1987
• Olson v. Sweden No. 1, 1988
• Olson v. Sweden No. 2, 1992
• Mc Michael v. the UK 1995
• Johansen v. Norway (1) 1996
• EP v. Italy 1999
• K. and T. v. Finland 2000
• Note Cases available at www.echr.coe.int

7
Limits to parental relationships

• Conflict between parents
• Injury or neglect (of children)
• Loss of interest in the child (by parent)
• Grave mental health problems (parent)
• Record of criminal violence (parent)
• Judge Bonello, in EP v. Italy, 1999, in a
  dissenting opinion suggested that these had be
  offered in the past as reasons for state
  intervention

8
Ensuring the continuance of parental relationship
with children in care

• Johansen v. Norway (1) 1996 (par 78)
• the applicant was deprived of her parental rights
  and access in the context of a permanent
  placement of her daughter in a foster home with a
  view to adoption
• These measures were particularly far-reaching in
  that they totally deprived the applicant of her
  family life with the child and were inconsistent
  with the aim of reuniting them
• Note Banning access prevents bonding

9
Ensuring the continuance of parental relationship
with children in care continued

• H. v. the UK 1987 (par 89)
• The proceedings, in addition to their particular
  quality of irreversibility, lay within an area in
  which procedural delay may lead to a de facto
  determination of the matter at issue.
• B. v. the UK 1987 (par 77)
• The extinction of all parental rights in regard
  to access would scarcely be compatible with
  fundamental notions of family life and the family
  ties that Art 8 . is designed to protect.
• In both cases, a child was taken into public care
  and later adopted without the mothers consent
  after a lengthy period of no access

10
How to avoid damage to children during assessment
of care situation

• Z and other v. the UK 2001
• Delay in taking children from mother led to
  severe psychological damage to children
• Case taken by the Official Solicitor
  (Bedfordshire case)
• Note redressing the balance of child protection
  versus state interference