Launching Mental health guidelines

Excellencies, Colleagues, Friends,

I regret that I cannot be with you in person.

I am delighted to be launching, with the Director-General, Dr Tedros, this joint OHCHR-WHO publication.

We are all aware of the enormous impact the pandemic had on mental health.

Social isolation, economic insecurity and fears around health triggered widespread anxiety and distress.

Many experienced a decline in their mental health while struggling to access adequate support.

The last few years, though, also cast a much-needed spotlight on the right to mental health, starting important conversations in countless homes, communities and workplaces all around the world.

It has been the catalyst for positive examples of transformation.

From the move to counselling online and by phone to the expansion of peer support initiatives which recognize the unique role that persons with lived experience can play in supporting others.

But the pandemic also acutely exposed the degree to which national legislation related to mental health in every region is based on a coercive and institutionalised approach.

Our new joint guidance is intended as a long overdue course-correct.

We hope it will inspire a new pathway for national laws and policies, firmly grounded in human rights understandings and which contributes to the 2030 Agenda vision of better health and well-being for all.

With an emphasis on personal dignity, equality and rights.

There needs to be a fundamental shift away from institutionalization towards inclusion and community-based support, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the right to health.

Our ambition must be to transform mental health services, not just in their reach, but in their underlying values.

So that they are truly responsive to the needs and dignity of the individual.

Enabling people to participate fully in their own recovery.

This demands a clear framework that ensures equality and non-discrimination in decision-making by individuals.

Including free and informed consent.

And gender-inclusive laws that address harmful practices often faced by women, such as over-medication, forced contraception and, indeed, violence.

Dear colleagues and friends,

This publication offers practical guidance on how a rights-based approach can support the transformation needed in mental health systems.

It sets out clearly an alternative set of objectives for national legislation along with the provisions needed to ensure access to good quality, community-based mental health programmes and services, centred on the individual needs of women and men in all their diversity with due consideration of age and culture.

It outlines concrete measures to safeguard human rights, such as every individual’s right to make decisions on treatment, eliminating the risk of coercion.

And it shows how legislation can be used to dismantle stigma and discrimination.

I am encouraged by a number of governments who have already taken steps to reform their legislation and policies.

I urge all States to use this guidance as a blueprint for reviewing existing legislation and for designing new statutes.

And I am confident this resource will be of support to the diverse group of stakeholders involved in advocating for and delivering better mental health provision.

Including, most importantly, people with mental health conditions and those who have psychosocial disabilities.

I would like to express my thanks to all those who contributed to the consultation on this publication.

To our colleagues in WHO for their excellent and continued cooperation, in particular the Policy, Law and Human Rights team.

And to all of you for taking part in this launch today.