The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Impact on Mental Health Law and Policy in Canada
Law and Mind: Mental Health Law and Policy in Canada (May 2016)
28 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2017
Date Written: May 12, 2016
Abstract
• Adopted on December 13, 2006, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has made history as the first human rights treaty of the 21st century and the fastest ever negotiated.
• The CRPD has facilitated a shift in the paradigm of physical and psychosocial disabilities from the traditional medical model of disability to a rights-based social model focused on inclusion, equality, and autonomy.
• Canada’s Reservations to Article 12 of the CRPD (equal recognition before the law) does not align with the UN CRPD Committee’s insistence on the sole use of supported decision-making regimes for persons with disabilities deemed to lack capacity.
• Thus far, while the CRPD remains explicitly inconspicuous in Canadian policy and law, its broader shift in the social and cultural paradigm of disability will likely result in further changes to the practice of medicine to enhance the inclusion and equality rights of persons with disabilities such as improved access to medical treatment and increased personal autonomy through supported decision-making regimes, etc.
Keywords: Global health; International Law; Canada; Mental Health; Disability Rights
JEL Classification: F50; F53; F55; I14; I15; I18; K33; K32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation