The development of rights of individuals with mental health difficulties : does the Mental Health Act of 2012 safeguard human rights?

Abstract

This term paper examines the relationship between mental health and human rights. The existence of human rights within mental health legislation is essential as, throughout the years, mentally ill individuals have suffered gross violations of their human rights through torture, degrading treatment, forced institutionalisation and forced treatment. These circumstances resulted from society’s perception of such individuals, as the latter were thought of as being ‘dangerous’ beings that needed to be locked away in order to protect the rest of society. However, locally, the coming into force of Chapter 262 Laws of Malta (CAP 262) in the 20th century, established regulations regarding the manner in which persons with mental disorders were to be handled. Hence, such individuals were indirectly granted a handful of rights. Nonetheless, with the developments occurring internationally regarding human rights in relation to mental health, CAP 262 was viewed inadequate as it failed to reflect this progress, and was resultantly repealed and replaced by Chapter 525 Laws of Malta (CAP 525). The latter outlines the rights of persons with mental disorders, and emphasises that their fundamental rights are to be respected. Thus, this study aims to highlight the development of rights of persons with mental disorders that took place over time. Provisions of CAP 525 were compared to those of CAP 262, the Maltese Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in order to track the development of rights of victims of mental health and simultaneously determine whether CAP 525 protects human rights. This study concludes that despite the improvements made in mental health legislation by virtue of CAP 525, the latter still has room for growth in order for it to completely safeguard human rights.