CRPD Committee calls on States Parties to oppose the draft Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) has publicly spoken out against the Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention and called on States Parties to oppose the draft.

The Committee considers the draft Additional Protocol to be in violation of several articles of the CRPD, such as the right for persons with disabilities, including psychosocial disabilities, to make decisions for themselves and to have those decisions respected by others (article 12 CRPD). The draft Protocol also goes against the prohibition of unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of liberty (article 14 CRPD), the right to health (article 25 CRPD) and the right to physical integrity (article 17 CRPD) as it would allow for deprivations of liberty and non-consensual interventions.

The Committee has reiterated its request for the Council of Europe to discuss alternatives to the Additional Protocol that would comply with the human rights of persons with disabilities, and asks States to follow the examples of Portugal, Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who have already expressed their opposition.

To read the statement click HERE.

MHE and others have long campaigned against the Additional Protocol. In May MHE, in conjunction with other organisations, sent an open letter to the Council of Europe and its Committee on Bioethics. The letter, calling for the immediate withdrawal of the Protocol, can be read HERE.

For MHE’s other statements on the Additional Protocol, read our response to the public consultation HERE (2015) and our statement with the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry HERE (2017).