This manual is intended for users and survivors of psychiatry, and user/survivor organizations, as an informational guide and reference for working with the Convention. Users and survivors have the opportunity to work with their government, through a national consultation process, on implementing the Convention, and also incorporate the Convention into advocacy they are doing (for instance, to get people out of institutions or stop forced drugging or electroshock). The Convention is a rich document and people may choose to focus on one or another area, depending on circumstances and priorities.
We have highlighted the aspects of the Convention that address the human rights violations especially targeted against users and survivors of psychiatry, in the areas of legal capacity, liberty and right to live in the community, freedom from forced psychiatric interventions, our inclusion as people with disabilities and participation in enforcement mechanisms. These are the areas that we believe will make a difference in the lives of all users and survivors of psychiatry, and without which other guarantees, such as the right to work and the right to vote, are meaningless to us.
Users and survivors of psychiatry are urged to read this manual together with the text of the Convention, and to apply it creatively to situations they are facing. Besides guaranteeing specific rights, the Convention requires equality and non-discrimination in the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. If the Convention and this manual do not address a particular situation, users and survivors can find the articles that seem most relevant and make their best argument. Human rights lawyers can help, but may also need to be educated by the user/survivor movement to present our issues correctly.
We face challenges in implementing the Convention, since there is as yet no government that complies with its requirements in relation to users and survivors of psychiatry. Many governments will contest the obligations in the Convention and fight to keep their guardianship and mental health laws, to continue psychiatric detention and violence, and promote a deficit-based view of psychosocial disability requiring medical model “treatments”. They will try to find loopholes or interpret it to make exceptions for the obligations they would rather not comply with. However, we have had many victories in the process of creating the Convention, and there are encouraging signs that our message has been heard by some governments, and that our allies in the disability and human rights communities will continue to work with us at the international and national levels. The challenges we face are not unique to our situation but are the same challenges faced by any group of disenfranchised people claiming our human rights as recognized in an international treaty. Our movement has matured a great deal through the treaty process and will continue to meet the challenges to break through to real change in the lives of users and survivors of psychiatry everywhere. (From WNUSP Implementation Manual, 'How to use this manual')
