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Article 15 - Freedom from torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Background Documents | Article 15 Background
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Working Group | References
References
Disability-specific
instruments
Principles for
the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and the Improvement of Mental
Health Care
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, forty-sixth session, Resolution
46/119 of 17 December 1991
Principles 1 (3), 5, 11, 15, 16
Principle 1 - Fundamental freedoms and basic rights
3. All persons with a mental illness, or who are being treated as such persons,
have the right to protection from economic, sexual and other forms of exploitation,
physical or other abuse and degrading treatment.
Principle 5 - Medical examination
No person shall be compelled to undergo medical examination with a view to determining
whether or not he or she has a mental illness except in accordance with a procedure
authorized by domestic law. Principle 11 - Consent to treatment
• No treatment shall be given to a patient without his or her informed consent,
except as provided for in paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 13 and 15 below.
• Informed consent is consent obtained freely, without threats or improper inducements,
after appropriate disclosure to the patient of adequate and understandable information
in a form and language understood by the patient on:
a. The diagnostic assessment;
b. The purpose, method, likely duration and expected benefit of the proposed
treatment;
c. Alternative modes of treatment, including those less intrusive; and
d. Possible pain or discomfort, risks and side-effects of the proposed treatment.
• A patient may request the presence of a person or persons of the patient's
choosing during the procedure for granting consent.
• A patient has the right to refuse or stop treatment, except as provided for
in paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 13 and 15 below. The consequences of refusing or stopping
treatment must be explained to the patient.
• A patient shall never be invited or induced to waive the right to informed
consent. If the patient should seek to do so, it shall be explained to the patient
that the treatment cannot be given without informed consent.
• Except as provided in paragraphs 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15 below, a proposed
plan of treatment may be given to a patient without a patient's informed consent
if the following conditions are satisfied:
a. The patient is, at the relevant time, held as an involuntary patient;
b. An independent authority, having in its possession all relevant information,
including the information specified in paragraph 2 above, is satisfied that,
at the relevant time, the patient lacks the capacity to give or withhold informed
consent to the proposed plan of treatment or, if domestic legislation so provides,
that, having regard to the patient's own safety or the safety of others, the
patient unreasonably withholds such consent; and
c. The independent authority is satisfied that the proposed plan of treatment
is in the best interest of the patient's health needs.
• Paragraph 6 above does not apply to a patient with a personal representative
empowered by law to consent to treatment for the patient; but, except as provided
in paragraphs 12, 13, 14 and 15 below, treatment may be given to such a patient
without his or her informed consent if the personal representative, having been
given the information described in paragraph 2 above, consents on the patient's
behalf.
• Except as provided in paragraphs 12, 13, 14 and 15 below, treatment may also
be given to any patient without the patient's informed consent if a qualified
mental health practitioner authorized by law determines that it is urgently
necessary in order to prevent immediate or imminent harm to the patient or to
other persons. Such treatment shall not be prolonged beyond the period that
is strictly necessary for this purpose.
• Where any treatment is authorized without the patient's informed consent,
every effort shall nevertheless be made to inform the patient about the nature
of the treatment and any possible alternatives and to involve the patient as
far as practicable in the development of the treatment plan.
• All treatment shall be immediately recorded in the patient's medical records,
with an indication of whether involuntary or voluntary.
• Physical restraint or involuntary seclusion of a patient shall not be employed
except in accordance with the officially approved procedures of the mental health
facility and only when it is the only means available to prevent immediate or
imminent harm to the patient or others. It shall not be prolonged beyond the
period which is strictly necessary for this purpose. All instances of physical
restraint or involuntary seclusion, the reasons for them and their nature and
extent shall be recorded in the patient's medical record. A patient who is restrained
or secluded shall be kept under humane conditions and be under the care and
close and regular supervision of qualified members of the staff. A personal
representative, if any and if relevant, shall be given prompt notice of any
physical restraint or involuntary seclusion of the patient.
• Sterilization shall never be carried out as a treatment for mental illness.
• A major medical or surgical procedure may be carried out on a person with
mental illness only where it is permitted by domestic law, where it is considered
that it would best serve the health needs of the patient and where the patient
gives informed consent, except that, where the patient is unable to give informed
consent, the procedure shall be authorized only after independent review.
• Psychosurgery and other intrusive and irreversible treatments for mental illness
shall never be carried out on a patient who is an involuntary patient in a mental
health facility and, to the extent that domestic law permits them to be carried
out, they may be carried out on any other patient only where the patient has
given informed consent and an independent external body has satisfied itself
that there is genuine informed consent and that the treatment best serves the
health needs of the patient.
• Clinical trials and experimental treatment shall never be carried out on any
patient without informed consent, except that a patient who is unable to give
informed consent may be admitted to a clinical trial or given experimental treatment,
but only with the approval of a competent, independent review body specifically
constituted for this purpose.
• In the cases specified in paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15 above, the patient
or his or her personal representative, or any interested person, shall have
the right to appeal to a judicial or other independent authority concerning
any treatment given to him or her.
Principle 15 - Admission principles
• Where a person needs treatment in a mental health facility, every effort shall
be made to avoid involuntary admission.
• Access to a mental health facility shall be administered in the same way as
access to any other facility for any other illness.
• Every patient not admitted involuntarily shall have the right to leave the
mental health facility at any time unless the criteria for his or her retention
as an involuntary patient, as set forth in Principle 16, apply, and he or she
shall be informed of that right.
Principle 16 - Involuntary admission
• A person may (a) be admitted involuntarily to a mental health facility as
a patient; or (b) having already been admitted voluntarily as a patient, be
retained as an involuntary patient in the mental health facility if, and only
if, a qualified mental health practitioner authorized by law for that purpose
determines, in accordance with Principle 4, that person has a mental illness
and considers:
a. That, because of that mental illness, there is a serious likelihood of immediate
or imminent harm to that person or to other persons; or
b. That, in the case of a person whose mental illness is severe and whose judgement
is impaired, failure to admit or retain that person is likely to lead to a serious
deterioration in his or her condition or will prevent the giving of appropriate
treatment that can only be given by admission to a mental health facility in
accordance with the principle of the least restrictive alternative. In the case
referred to in subparagraph (b), a second such mental health practitioner, independent
of the first, should be consulted where possible. If such consultation takes
place, the involuntary admission or retention may not take place unless the
second mental health practitioner concurs.
• Involuntary admission or retention shall initially be for a short period as
specified by domestic law for observation and preliminary treatment pending
review of the admission or retention by the review body. The grounds of the
admission shall be communicated to the patient without delay and the fact of
the admission and the grounds for it shall also be communicated promptly and
in detail to the review body, to the patient's personal representative, if any,
and, unless the patient objects, to the patient's family.
• A mental health facility may receive involuntarily admitted patients only
if the facility has been designated to do so by a competent authority prescribed
by domestic law.