1. World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
HUMAN RIGHTS
SELF-DETERMINATION
EQUALITY
EMPOWERMENT

2. WNUSP… International organization of users and survivors of psychiatry
Advocates for the human rights of users and survivors
Speaks internationally for users and survivors
Promotes the user/survivor movement in every nation
Links user/survivor organizations and individuals throughout the world

3. Users and Survivors
WNUSP is open to all users/survivors and user/survivor organizations
Self-defined as a person who has experienced madness or mental health problems or who has used or survived psychiatry or the mental health system
Board elected by membership on geographical basis
Africa and Middle East, Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe

4. Disability and Human Rights Work of WNUSP
Panel of experts of UN Special Rapporteur on Disability
International Disability Alliance
UN Ad Hoc Committee on a Disability Convention

5. UN Disability Convention
What it Means for Users and Survivors of Psychiatry

6. The United Nations

7. Convention = Treaty
International Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
Will be binding on governments once adopted and ratified

8. History of the Disability Convention
2001 UN General Assembly adopts Mexican resolution to consider proposals for a convention on the rights of people with disabilities
Ad Hoc Committee decides to draft convention
WNUSP participates from beginning
International Disability Caucus

9. Drafting the Convention
WNUSP member of Working Group
January 2004 Working Group meets to draft text
12 NGOs, 27 governments, 1 NHRI
photo © Diana Signe Kline 2004

10. UN Working Group January 2004
photos © Diana Signe Kline 2004

11. What’s Happening Now
United Nations begins negotiating the text in the full Ad Hoc Committee

12. Principles Self-determination Non-discrimination
Inclusion and participation
The right to be different
“Nothing about us without us”

13. User/Survivor Issues in the Convention
Legal capacity, personhood and citizenship rights
Forced interventions are a form of torture and ill treatment
End deprivation of liberty based on disability
No loopholes for discrimination
Break into 4 visuals?
Define legal capacity

14. User/Survivor Issues cont’d
Meaningful alternatives for services
Right to work, reasonable accommodation
Right to an adequate standard of living and poverty eradication
Right to vote
Right to experience intimate relationships and to raise our children

15. Issues in Depth - Legal Capacity
Everyone has legal capacity on equal basis
Children have evolving legal capacity
Everyone is entitled to use support in decision-making
Support people must respect will of person receiving support
Endeavor to determine will even through non-verbal cues when communication is difficult
Builds capabilities
Offers support without judgment or penalty
Discussing issues in depth - these are the center of our advocacy - force, detention and deprivation of personhood are the violations that express discrimination against us violently.

16. Issues in Depth - Forced Interventions as Torture
“Forced interventions to correct, improve or alleviate any actual or perceived impairment”
Discrimination
Violates our right to be different
Violates self-determination
Diminishes mental and physical capacities and obliterates personality
Severity of harm and long-term effects
Have short paper outlining legal argument that forced interventions meet definition of torture

17. Issues in Depth - Deprivation of Liberty
Loss of physical freedom is significant harm
Used as punishment and social control
No separate standard based on disability
Reasonable accommodation in arrest and detention for crimes

18. Survivor-controlled Services
Users and Survivors define their own needs
The Right to choose from a variety of options
Survivors creating their own support structures
Survivors as experts and as service providers
Drug free support structures
Support criticising the medial model

19. The Berlin Runaway House as an Example
Survivors of psychiatry work in the house
No psychiatric diagnosis
Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs is offered
Crisis and unusual behavior or perceptions as meaningful parts of life
Individual and self-defined support
Antipsychiatric background

20. Meaningful participation
Users and survivors as experts
User/survivor-controlled research
Influence in decision making
No token involvement
Veto rights and payment as experts
Structural changes

21. WNUSP/ENUSP Conference Vejle, Denmark July 2004
photo © George F. Hoogervorst 2004

22. For More Information www.wnusp.org