A group of disability and human rights organisations launched a call to the Council of Europe to definitively abandon a draft Additional Protocol on mental health care that would solidify the use of coercion and forced treatment.
The group’s call follows a letter from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also demanding that the Council of Europe withdraw that protocol.
This is the latest step in a long-term campaign by disability advocates and human rights organisations, which have denounced the draft Additional Protocol for more than ten years.
We have been joined by UN bodies, national human rights institutions, the former Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, and even the Council’s own Parliamentary Assembly.
Unfortunately, only the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has the decision-making power to withdraw this protocol.