Mental Health and Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/61/18View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2026.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2016–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	A/HRC/RES/61/18	Mental health and human rights	4,210	55%Compare
2023	A/HRC/RES/52/12	Mental health and human rights	3,609	72%Compare
2020	A/HRC/RES/43/13	Mental health and human rights	2,926	57%Compare
2017	A/HRC/RES/36/13	Mental health and human rights	2,343	31%Compare
2016	A/HRC/RES/32/18	Mental health and human rights	869	–

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

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

What’s in this document?

21 operative paragraphs

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 services and support that consider key social determinants of health, prioritize recovery and social inclusion and that respect, protect and fulfil the human rights, and respect the autonomy, will and preferences of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, including by providing adequate funding and 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, punitive approaches and coercion, which may include involuntary commitment, forced treatment, seclusion and restraints, medicalization and institutionalization;

Calls upon States to take all appropriate measures to ensure that practices and treatments fully respect the rights, autonomy, will and preferences of all persons with psychosocial disabilities on an equal basis with others, and to prevent and address power imbalances, stigma, discrimination, harm and human rights violations and abuses in mental health settings, which may involve 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, sports, social protection and family law, with a human rights perspective, ensuring that all persons are guaranteed equal rights and equal recognition before the law and taking into consideration the joint guidance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization (WHO) on mental health, human rights and legislation, as well as WHO guidance documents on mental health;

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 respect, protect and fulfil the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including by monitoring and conducting independent and non-independent reviews of respect for and protection and fulfilment of that right, and 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, effective remedies and reparations;

Urges States to address the underlying social, economic and environmental determinants of health and the impact of economic, commercial and market factors 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, including, but not limited to, the right to take part in cultural life;

Strongly encourages States to develop, adequately fund and monitor cross-sectoral strategies for the promotion of mental health that consider its social determinants and include public policies, including those addressing the foundations of development in childhood and lifelong well-being, 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 and action plans 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, 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 law enforcement agents, policymakers, 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 lived experience of 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 ensuring that policies are better informed by the needs of rights holders and more effective and to realizing, without discrimination, the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of mental health and to ensure that mental health services are appropriate, available, affordable, accessible, equitable and of good quality for all, including through leveraging digital tools and technologies, as part of a health approach anchored on human rights;

Calls upon States to adopt all measures necessary for the realization of the right of everyone to the highest attainable 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 2027, and no later than the eightieth session of the World Health Assembly, a one-day consultation accessible to persons with disabilities and open to the participation of States and all other stakeholders, including relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, in particular the WHO, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, national human rights institutions, national preventive mechanisms and civil society, on tailored, person-centred and recovery-oriented public policies, programmes and strategies across government sectors to protect and promote mental health and well-being, including long-term strategic recommendations for deinstitutionalization, community inclusion and ending coercive practices, informed by lived experiences and robust data collection within mental health systems, 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 invite persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, persons with lived experience and their organizations from all regions, and to ensure their active participation in the consultation, mindful of the central role they play and their historical exclusion from decision-making processes;

Further requests the High Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive report, accessible to persons with disabilities, on the outcome of the consultation, including a baseline study of the current state of the realization of the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and current or potential users of mental health services, including by gathering lived experiences, 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 sixty-seventh session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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