Mental Health and Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/52/12View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2016–2026

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/61/18

2026A/HRC/RES/61/18Mental health and human rightsLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/52/12Mental health and human rightsCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/43/13Mental health and human rightsCompare with previous version
2017A/HRC/RES/36/13Mental health and human rightsCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/32/18Mental health and human rights

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Consultations Health Policy Human Rights Human Rights Policy Mental Health Mental Health Services Persons with Mental Disabilities

What does this mandate say?

26 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on mental health and human rights on the consultation on human rights and mental health, held in Geneva on 15 November 2021;

Takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health on the elements that are needed to set a rights-based global agenda for advancing the right to mental health;

Also takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities on artificial intelligence and the rights of persons with disabilities and on the transformation of services for persons with disabilities;

Reaffirms the obligation of States to respect, protect and fulfil all human rights and fundamental freedoms and to ensure that policies and services relating to mental health comply with international human rights law;

Urges States to take active steps to fully integrate a human rights perspective into mental health and community services, and to adopt, implement, update, strengthen or monitor, as appropriate, all existing laws, policies and practices in line with international human rights obligations, with a view to eliminating all forms of discrimination, stigma, stereotypes, prejudice, violence, abuse, social exclusion, segregation, unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and institutionalization, and overmedicalization of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, and to promote their right to live independently, to equality and non-discrimination, and to have access to holistic mental health services and support that are free from coercion and respect their legal capacity and informed consent, and that promote their right to full and effective inclusion and participation in society, to decide upon matters affecting them and to have their dignity respected on an equal basis with others;

Also urges States to promote a paradigm shift in mental health, inter alia, in the fields of clinical practice, policy, research, medical education and investment, through the promotion of community-, evidence- and human rights-based and people-centred services and support that respect, protect and fulfil the human rights, autonomy, will and preferences of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, including by providing a range of voluntary supported decision-making mechanisms, such as peer support, and safeguards against abuse and undue influence within support arrangements, over a model based on the dominance of biomedical interventions, coercion, medicalization and institutionalization;

Calls upon States to abandon all practices and treatments that fail to respect the rights, autonomy, will and preferences of all persons on an equal basis with others, and that lead to power imbalances, stigma, discrimination, harm and human rights violations and abuses in mental health settings, which may involve forced institutionalization and substituted decision-making in law and in practice;

Also calls upon States to carry out the necessary legal reforms, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in all sectors relevant to mental health, including anti-discrimination, legal capacity and criminal justice, education, health, social protection and family law, with a human rights perspective, ensuring that all persons are guaranteed equal rights and equal recognition before the law;

Further calls upon States to adopt all measures necessary to ensure that everyone who requires mental health support is recognized, first and foremost, as a person before the law, in accordance with the human rights model of disability, and to ensure that, in all fields, including law and health, language, especially in connection with disability and mental health, reflects a human rights model that does not reinforce stigma, prejudice or ableism;

Calls upon States to ensure that persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services have access to justice on an equal basis with others, including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations, and to enable them to have access to redress and reparations;

Urges States to address the underlying social, economic and environmental determinants of health and to address holistically the range of structural barriers arising from inequality and discrimination that impede the full enjoyment of human rights in the context of mental health, and to recognize that the approach to mental health systems and services should be widened beyond the biomedical model to include a holistic approach that considers all aspects of a person’s life;

Strongly encourages States to develop cross-sectoral strategies for the promotion of mental health that include public policies to prevent inequality, discrimination and violence in all settings and promote non-violent and respectful relationships between members of societies and communities, and increase mutual trust between authorities, individuals and civil society;

Urges States to adopt prevention strategies to address depression and suicide, such as public health policies that respect human rights and focus on tackling determinants, enhancing life skills and resilience, promoting social connection and healthy relationships, and avoiding overmedicalization;

Calls upon States to take all measures necessary to ensure that health professionals provide care and support of the same quality to persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services as to others, including on the basis of free and informed consent by, inter alia, raising awareness of the human rights, dignity, autonomy and needs of these persons through training and the promulgation of ethical standards for public and private health care;

Also calls upon States to build capacity among mental health professionals, civil society actors, including organizations of persons with disabilities, and other key stakeholders in order to strengthen knowledge and skills for the promotion of laws, policies, services and practices in the area of mental health, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

Strongly encourages States to support persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services to empower themselves in order to know and demand their rights, including by promoting health and human rights literacy and education on issues concerning loss of power and control, to provide human rights education and training for health and social workers, police, law enforcement officers, prison staff and other relevant professions, with a special focus on non-discrimination, free and informed consent and respect for their will and preferences, confidentiality and privacy, and to exchange best practices in this regard;

Encourages States to promote the effective, full and meaningful participation of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services and their organizations in the design, implementation and monitoring of law, policies, services and programmes relevant to realizing, without discrimination, the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of mental health;

Calls upon States to adopt all measures necessary for the realization of the highest standard of physical and mental health, including through stronger and more resilient health systems and by working towards the achievement of universal health coverage;

Recognizes the need to promote the mainstreaming of a human rights perspective into mental health in all relevant public policies;

Encourages States to provide technical support and capacity-building through international cooperation to countries that develop and implement policies, plans, laws and services that promote and protect the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, in accordance with the present resolution, in consultation with, and with the consent of, the countries concerned;

Requests the High Commissioner to organize in 2024, and no later than the seventy-seventh session of the World Health Assembly, a one-day consultation on the challenges and best ways to implement at the local, national and regional levels enabling normative and policy measures for the realization of the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services;

Also requests the High Commissioner to provide the above-mentioned consultation with all the services and facilities necessary, including by making the discussions fully accessible to persons with disabilities;

Further requests the High Commissioner to invite to the consultation Member States and all other stakeholders, including relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, in particular the World Health Organization, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the treaty bodies, national human rights institutions and civil society;

Requests the High Commissioner to invite persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, and their organizations, and to ensure their active participation in the consultation, mindful of the central role they play and their historical exclusion from decision-making processes;

Also requests the High Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive report, accessible to persons with disabilities, on the outcome of the consultation, with recommendations for States and all other relevant stakeholders, including health professionals, and to include suggestions of policy tools for the implementation of a human rights perspective to mental health, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-eighth session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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