Positivity in Zagreb – Now back in Geneva

Yesterday I didn’t write a blog. I was too busy having fun at the office of SJAJ (SHINE, www.sjaj.hr ) with the organizers of the conference on Future Concepts of Legal Capacity in Legislation of the Republic of Croatia. Kristijan Grdjan invited me to come and see their office and social room. It was very nice, we put on music, Mario and I danced, and then we ate the leftovers of the conference-lunch. They taught me some dirty Croatian words and I laughed until my belly hurt, and then a bit more. I had a really great evening :) Back in the hotel I answered some necessary emails, and then I really had to go to sleep, because I was the first speaker at the conference today. I also managed to sort out what meaning I should give to the Observation of the Special Rapporteurs. That brought peace back inside me, and even happiness. I just have to forget about the sentence that brings me fear (the reiteration of the danger-criterion), and when I look at the rest, then it is clear that there should be an absolute ban on forced treatments. That is positive.

I just arrived back in Geneva again. This morning I woke up in Zagreb, where I participated in the Conference on Future Concepts of Legal Capacity in Legislation of the Republic of Croatia. I gave a presentation this morning about Family Group Conferencing as a way of supported decision-making. It was received very well. The conference in Zagreb was really interesting and progressive. The assistant minister of the Ministry of Social Policies and Youth was present, and the Disability Ombudswoman, and various policymakers and persons who work in the field of mental health care and community support. And also Gabor Gombos and Amita Dhanda were there, both Professors in Law and very progressive and respectable drivers of change. I was especially happy to meet Amita, because I had heard so much about her and I was curious to meet her (Gabor and Amita are composing a book for which I wrote a chapter). It was a pity that I couldn’t stay longer, we only had a brief chat all together between all the activities.
Unfortunately I had to leave Zagreb before the conference had ended, because my flight back to Geneva (via Brussels) departed around 15.00h. But I definitely wanted to hear Amita’s presentation so I stayed till 13.15 and then I rushed off. It was absolutely inspiring to hear Amita speaking about the concept of Universal Support (all people need support in certain stages in their life cycle, so the need for support is not exclusive to people with disabilities, but support needs to be there for all people). Also Gabor’s speech was very inspiring and illuminating. I will write a more detailed report later (the work is piling up…).

I had 5 flights in 5 days (Amsterdam-Geneva-Zurich-Zagreb-Brussels-Geneva), so I’m allowing myself to postpone the more detailed reports, although I prefer to finish it asap. Tomorrow I will have 1 more presentation in a side-event at the UN Human Rights Council, with Tina Minkowitz and Hege Orefellen (also important drivers of change), and also with Pat and Aubrey again, who both gave very powerful presentations at the Human Rights Committee at our WNUSP-HRW side-event on Monday, and therefore they also drive the change. The opportunity to meet so many inspiring people makes this a wonderful week.

And of course my mind is also still occupied with the Observations of the Special Rapporteurs. But I’m not so confused anymore. I can see the political value of the outcome. There is a lot of good stuff in there that empowers me, and which WILL bring change.

It took a while to understand the outcome around my personal complaints. The summary was easily misread with the reference to the danger-criterion (that is why I got upset), but the real letter contains much more clarity. After re-reading the full letter of the Special Rapporteur on Health and the SR on Torture to the Government of the Netherlands over and over again, I am really getting happier and happier everyday. It really puts weight to my complaints, and puts pressure on the government to change, and even includes a broader scope for “all victims” and “preventing recurrence”. The questions raised by the Special Rapporteurs to the government of the Netherlands are really giving a clear direction. Such as:

(4) “What measures have been undertaken by the Government of the Netherlands to revise the legal provisions that allow detention on mental health grounds or in mental health facilities, and any coercive interventions or treatments in the mental health setting without the free and informed consent by the person concerned? What steps have been undertaken to replace forced treatment and commitment by services in the community that meet needs expressed by persons with disabilities and respect the autonomy, choices, dignity and privacy of the person concerned, with an emphasis on various alternatives for mental health care, including peer support, awareness-raising and training of mental health-care and law enforcement personnel and others?”

and

(6) “What measures have been undertaken to impose an absolute ban on all forced and non-consensual medical interventions against persons with disabilities, including the non-consensual administration of psychosurgery, electroshock and mindaltering drugs such as neuroleptics, the use of restraint and solitary confinement, for both long-and short-term application?”

You can read the letter here: https://spdb.ohchr.org/hrdb/24th/public_-_AL_Netherlands_08.10.13_(2.2013).pdf


The Dutch Government will now have to show to the UN what they are doing to prevent this from reoccurring. So that will wake them up :) The Netherlands has to comply to the UN norms, and there is work to do. We are not there yet.

In fact, the conference in Croatia showed that the CRPD-Human Rights awareness has a higher level in Croatia than the Netherlands; in the Netherlands there are still law-proposals being made which expand the options for forced treatments, and the Dutch national Human Rights Action Plan even mentions forced anti-conception for persons who are expected to be unfit for parenting (so the rights of a non-existing person prevail over the rights of an existing person). This is really a big shame, but the Dutch policymakers don’t even see that… In the Netherlands the old paradigm is still very much dominating. Even the Dutch Ombudsperson never showed any interest in mental health care issues (as a reply to my personal complaints he said that “private mental health care institutions are not within his scope”, but as a matter of fact persons deprived of liberty fall under responsibility of the State, and the Ombudsman should take this on, but unfortunately he doesn’t seem to do so… ). That is the real situation in the Netherlands. In the 80s the Netherlands may have been progressive, I think that those times have passed…. Now other countries are more progressive when it comes to human rights. (the Netherlands seems to become the very last country of the European Union to ratify the CRPD).

It was refreshing to experience the debate in Croatia (don’t get me wrong, also in Croatia there are firm debates and many issues to tackle. It is far from easy there), but at least there is some governmental support to make a change in line with the human rights standards, because they take the CRPD serious. I praise Croatia for that.

And now I am in Geneva again. It was around 23.00h when I got “home” in the apartment. Tomorrow we will have another side-event at the UN. The title is: Access to Justice: Ending Impunity. I still have to prepare my presentation, and I also need to sleep otherwise I will be a zombie tomorrow. It is a very busy week, so I have to break my habit of writing full reports at the same day of the activities. I will finish the work-reports next week when I am at home. Now it’s almost half past twelve in the night, and it’s time to sleep. I had a good, inspiring, positive, long day. I feel balanced and strong again, not so confused anymore. Things are sorted out in my head again. That feels much better!!
:)