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Living in Chains - Shackling of people with psychosocial disabilities worldwide

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
October 2020

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In order to show the scale and scope of shackling of people with real or perceived psychosocial disabilities worldwide, Human Rights Watch conducted a study of mental health legislation, relevant policies, and practices across 60 countries around the world.

This report includes research and testimonies collected by 16 Human Rights Watch researchers in their own countries. We worked closely with partner organizations to visit private homes and institutions in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Russia, the selfdeclared independent state of Somaliland, South Sudan, and Yemen. Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed more than 350 people with psychosocial disabilities, including those who were shackled at the time of research or had been shackled at least once in their lives, and more than 430 family members, caregivers or staff working in institutions, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other mental health professionals, faith healers, lawyers, government officials, representatives of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including organizations of persons with disabilities, and disability rights advocates. The testimonies were collected between August 2018 and September 2020 through in-person and phone interviews.

Desk research and consultation with international disability experts was also undertaken

Torture in healthcare settings : reflections on the Special Rapporteur on torture's 2013 thematic report

ANTI-TORTURE INITIAITIVE
February 2014

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This resource is a collection of articles focused upon the treatment of people with psycho-social disabilities in health-care settings, particularly with regard to torture, abuse and ill-treatment, and reflecting on the Special Rapporteur on Torture’s 2013 thematic report.

It brings together contributions by more than thirty international experts in response to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez’s thematic report, providing insights into essential topics and highlighting issues at the forefront of the intersecting medical, legal, and policy fields. It supports a commitment to tackling the challenges that continue to arise in promoting and protecting the human rights of persons in diverse healthcare settings globally

Towards preventing torture and ill-treatment in health-care settings

MENDEZ, Juan E
February 2013

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"The present report focuses on certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It identifies the policies that promote these practices and existing protection gaps. By illustrating some of these abusive practices in health-care settings, the report sheds light on often undetected forms of abusive practices that occur under the auspices of health-care policies, and emphasizes how certain treatments run afoul of the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment. It identifies the scope of State's obligations to regulate, control and supervise health-care practices with a view to preventing mistreatment under any pretext. The Special Rapporteur examines a number of the abusive practices commonly reported in health-care settings and describes how the torture and ill-treatment framework applies in this context. The examples of torture and ill-treatment in health settings discussed likely represent a small fraction of this global problem"
A/HRC/22/53

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