Positive start in Geneva

I am in Geneva again, and I’m having a good time.
I arrived in Geneva at 8.30 this morning, after an overnight trip (so yes, I’m a little tired now). I had a good flight, and during landing I saw several rainbows in the sky, like a special welcome-sign :) That made me feel stronger. I felt like I was at the right place at the right time.
After this nice arrival, I went immediately to the UN at Palais Wilson, with my luggage. There I met the Japanese delegation: Yoshi, Mari, Reiko and Yoshiko, who were having a meeting with Mrs. Waterval, a member of the Human Rights Committee, coming from Surinam. I observed the last bit of the meeting, about the parallel report on Japan of the Japan National Group of Mentally Disabled People and WNUSP and IDA http://www.ccprcentre.org/doc/2014/06/INT_CCPR_CSS_JPN_17418_E.pdf

The horrible pictures of the person who was beaten to death in a Japanese seclusion cell (also attached at the last pages of the report) were printed on boards and put on the table. It was very painful to see this. It got deep under my skin…
After the meeting with Mrs. Waterval, the Japanese delegation and I stayed in the cafeteria of Palais Wilson, and we talked about our plans for the coming days: We are mainly trying to sensitize the Human Rights Committee members, on the situation of users and survivors in Japan and Ireland, and also with regard to improving the Draft General Comment on article 9 Right to liberty and security of person.

At 12.00 in the afternoon I went to the first NGO briefing on Ireland and Japan. This was a closed session, with no government-people allowed, only NGOs and NHRIs. There were many delegates, so every organization had a limited amount of delegates in the room. But luckily there was still a seat for me.
First there was a time reserved for the NGO briefing on Ireland. Main themes were on freedom of religion and secular education and the Catholic oath for public functions, discrimination of Roma and travellers, the deprivation of liberty and legal capacity of persons with intellectual disabilities (by Inclusion Ireland), the overcrowding in prison cells, discrimination in immigration procedures, and torturous anti-pregnancy surgery (by breaking the pelvis). It was rather surprising to see that there was a women group advocating pro-abortion and one religious group anti-abortion. That was quite extreme.
In the NGO briefing on Japan, the main themes were: discrimination and recognition of hate crimes, no OPCAT and no NHRI yet, the death penalty and confession-based justice system, no support or monitoring of Fukushima victims, the government surveillance on muslims, the full disclosure of evidence in deathrow, kidnapping and disappearances for forced religious (re)conversion, and the Special Secrets-act. The human rights issues on mental health care in Japan were not addressed in this first session, but will be addressed in the second NGO briefing tomorrow.

Then during lunch time we had a meeting with Mr. Neuman, Human Rights Committee member. The Japanese delegation explained what the situation was in psychiatric institutions in Japan, and how there is basically not any other form of intervention than institutionalization and detainment. Japan has the highest amount of persons detained in institutions (300.000 persons), of which most are not free to leave, due to an involuntary/compulsory measure (130.000), or simply because they have no place to go (50.000). 97% of the government budget on mental health goes to private institutions (who only want to grow bigger and get more corporate power). Only 3% of the national budget for mental health goes to support in communities. So in Japan it is either care by families or institutionalization. Also voluntary patients are generally not free to leave (their stay turns involuntary then or they have no place to go). Also the mental health review board fails to bring any change. On top of that, the institutions are hard to access by family and lawyers (privacy rules), so violence and abuse often goes unmonitored. The Japanese delegation showed the disturbing pictures of the person beaten to death by psychiatry, and urged Mr. Neuman to bring these issues up in the Questions to the State delegation of Japan.

After Mr. Neuman left, Mr. Zlatescu took his place, and he was given the same information by the Japanese delegation. I really felt like Mr. Zlatescu had an understanding of the situation in psychiatry, and he seemed willing to raise questions to the delegation of the Japanese government, tomorrow afternoon.

After this positive meeting, The Japanese delegation, Vicky from IDA and I spent some more time in the cafeteria of Palais Wilson, where we prepared for tomorrows NGO briefing, in which there will be only 2 minutes speaking time for the Japan National Group of Mentally Disabled People (since there are so many NGOs present). Therefore it is important to meet with the committee members privately. Around 16.00 we left Palais Wilson, and I went to my hotel: Hotel Admiral.

At 18.00 Mari, Yoshi, Reiko and Yoshiko came to my hotel to pick me up for dinner. We shared a delicious and cosy Italian meal with a view on the sunset at Lake Geneva. We had great fun. After dinner we went to have a drink at another terrace, and we laughed until our bellies hurt. It was a really great evening. Absolutely wonderful.

And I kind of needed that. I have been having a lot of mixed feelings lately. So mixed that it is hard to make sense of it. And it has to do with the UN and the Netherlands.
But anyway, this first day in Geneva went very well. I am really feeling good now. I had a lovely evening, we laughed a lot. I had a great day :)