Mental disability and the right to personal liberty in Africa

ABSTRACT

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is leading an initiative to draft a disability protocol. This is particularly important for persons with mental disability as the draft protocol makes specific provisions guaranteeing their right to personal liberty, a right currently unavailable to them under article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as interpreted by the African Commission in Purohit & Moore v The Gambia. This article analyses the changes introduced by the draft protocol and examines to what extent they provide realistic prospects for the enjoyment of that right by persons with mental disability.

KEYWORDS:

• African disability protocol
• persons with mental disability in Africa
• right to personal liberty
• African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges with gratitude Professor Gordon Woodman for comments on earlier drafts of this article and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. The usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Laura-Stella Enonchong is an Early Career Academic Fellow at De Montfort University Law School. Her research interest is in the area of human rights and constitutional law, with a particular focus on Africa. Prior to joining De Montfort, she was an associate lecturer at the University of Warwick where she also received her PhD.

Notes

1 The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986) (1982) 21 ILM 58 (‘African Charter’), art. 6.

2 Purohit & Moore v The Gambia, Communication No. 241/2001, Sixteenth Activity Report 2002–2003.

3 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976) 999 UNTS 171 (ICCPR); see e.g. General Comment No. 35.

4 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights) (adopted 4 November 1950) 213 UNTS 221, ETS No. 5, art. 5.

5 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, GA Res 61/106, UN Doc A/RES/61/106, art. 14.

6 Yeung Sik Yuen, ‘Intersession Activity Report of Commissioner Yeung Kam JohnYeung Sik Yuen’ (6–20 April 2016), http://.achpr.org/files/sessions/58th/inter-act-reps/247/580s_inter_session_report_yeung_eng.pdf (accessed 10 May 2016).

7 This is the definition contained in the Draft Protocol on Disability Rights in Africa, art. 1(g).

8 See definition offered by Natalie Drew et al., ‘Human Rights Violations of People with Mental and Psychosocial Disabilities’, The Lancet, no. 9803 (2011): 1664, 1665.

9 George Szmukler et al., ‘Mental Health Law and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 37, no. 3 (2014): 245, 246.

10 Thematic Study by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Enhancing Awareness and Understanding of the CRPD (OHCHR Legal Measures Study) UN Doc A/HRC/10/48, 26 January 2009, para. 49.

11 Tina Minkowitz, ‘Abolishing Mental Health Laws to Comply with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, in Rethinking Rights-Based Mental Health Laws, eds. Bernadette McSherry and Penelope Weller (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2010), 151–2.

12 Michael Perlin acknowledges that there is no single, universally accepted definition of mental disabilities but it can be understood as including psychiatric and intellectual disabilities: Michael Perlin, International Human Rights and Mental Disability Law: When the Silence are Heard (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 8, esp note 10.

13 See generally, P. H. van Kempen, ‘Four Concepts of Security: A Human Rights Perspective’, Human Rights Law Review 13, no. 1 (2013): 1. See also S. Joseph and M. Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials and Commentary, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 341–4.

14 See for instance the HRC's decision in Delgado Páez v Colombia, Communication No. 195/1985, UN Doc. CCPR/C/39/D/ 195/1985 (23 August 1990), esp paras 5.5–5.6; Rajapakse v Sri Lanka, Communication No. 1250/2004, UN Doc CCPR/C/87/D/1250/2004 (2006); and the African Commission in Sudan Human Rights Organisation & Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions v Sudan, Communication No. 279/03-296/05, esp paras 173–5.

15 ICCPR, art. 9(1); African Charter, art. 96; European Convention, art. 5(1); and American Convention, art. 7(1),(2), (3).

16 HRC in Domukovsky and others v Georgia, Communication No. 623–624/95, 626–627/95, UN Doc CCPR/C/62/D/623, 624, 626 & 627/1995 (1998). See also Yoram Dinstein, ‘Right to Life, Physical Integrity and Liberty’, in The International Bill of Rights, ed. L. Henkin (New Yok: Columbia University Press, 1981), 130; cited in Joseph and Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 346.

17 The UNHRC in A v Australia, Communication 560/93, UN Doc CCPR/C/59/D/560/1993; and the African Commission in Article 19 v Eritrea (2007) AHRLR 73 (ACHPR 2007).

18 And indeed under other international instruments. The European Court of Human Rights for instance has held that detention that is arbitrary can never be regarded as lawful. See Winterwerp v Netherlands (1979) ECHR 4 (App. No. 6301/73). See also Paul Sieghart, The International Law of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 145.

19 van Alphen v Netherlands, Communication No. 305/1988, UN Doc CCPR/C/39/D/305/1988 (1990).

20 Mukong v Cameroon, Communication No. 560/93, UN Doc CCPR/C/59/D/560/1993; Article 19 v Eritrea; van Alphen vThe Netherlands. See also Joseph and Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 247–8.

21 van Alphen v The Netherlands; and Spakmo v Norway, Communication No. 631/1999. See also Joseph and Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 341.

22 A v Australia, para. 9.2. See also Alice Edwards, ‘Back to Basics: The Right to Liberty and Security of Person and “Alternatives to Detention” of Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, Stateless Persons and Other Migrants’, UNHCR Division for International Protection, http://www.unhcr.org/protectatp.21 (accessed 13 May 2016), 21.

23 Edwards, ‘Back to Basics’, 21. See also Mukong v Cameroon.

24 See respectively ICCPR, art. 9(1)–(5); European Convention, art. 5(2)–(5); American Convention, art. 7(4)–(6).

25 Other instruments such as resolutions are authoritative in interpreting and elaborating specific rights in the African Charter. See Gino Naldi, ‘The African Union and the Regional Human Rights System’, in The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: The System in Practice 1986–2006, eds. Malcolm Evans and Rachel Murray, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 38.

26 The other safeguards that include prompt presentation before a judge or judicial officer, trial within a reasonable time or release pending trial, are associated with arrest on the basis of criminal charges. There is also a right to compensation for unlawful arrest applicable to all instances of deprivation of liberty.

27 ICCPR, art. 9(2); European Convention, art. 5(2); American Convention, art. 7(4).

28 ICCPR, art. 9(4); European Convention, art. 5(4); American Convention, art. 7(6).

29 Drescher Caldas v Uruguay, Communication No. 43/1979, para. 13.2; Ilombe and another v DRC (2006) AHRLR 50, para. 6.2 (HRC 2006).

30 Grant v Jamaica, Communication No. 597/1994. UN Doc CCPR/C/56/D/597/1994 (1996).

31 In that respect see art. 14(3)(a) of the ICCPR and Media Rights Agenda v Nigeria (2000) AHRLR 262 (ACHPR 2000). In that case, the African Commission reiterated that persons deprived of their liberty have the right to be informed, in a language that they understand, of the reason for their arrest and of the charges against them.

32 ICCPR, art. 9(4); European Convention, art. 5(4); American Convention, art. 7(6); Principle M(4) of the African Principles guarantees the right of persons deprived of their liberty to be able to challenge that decision before a court.

33 Constitutional Rights Project and another v Nigeria (2000) AHRLR 248 (ACHPR 1999); A v Australia, para. 9.5.

34 A v Australia, paras 9.4, 9.5.

35 Castillo Petruzzi and others v Peru, Judgment of 30 May 1999, in OAS doc. OEA/Ser.L/V/III.47, doc. 6, Annual Report of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights 1999, 276, para. 184.

36 A v Australia, para. 9.4. See also A v New Zealand, Communication No. 754/97 (HRC).

37 Edwards, ‘Back to Basics’, 38.

38 Torres v Finland, Communication No. 291/1988. UN Doc CCPR/C/38/D/291/1988, para. 7.3.

39 Ibid., para. 7.4.

40 Department for International Development, ‘Considering Mental Health in Africa’ (2013), http://www.gov.uk/government/news/dfid-research-considering-mental-health-in-africa (accessed 20 April 2015).

41 World Health Organisation, Mental Health Atlas (Geneva: WHO, 2005); Sarah Skeen et al., ‘Meeting the Millenium Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa: What about Mental Health?’ International Review of Psychiatry 22, no. 6 (2010): 624, 624.

42 O. Gureje and A. Alem, ‘Mental Health Policy Development in Africa’, Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 78, no. 4 (2000): 475–82, 475; J. Abdulmalik et al., ‘Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme: A Pioneering Response to the Neglect of Mental Health in Anglophone West Africa’, International Journal of Mental Health Systems 8, no. 5 (2014): 1; Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamango, The Social and Cultural Aspects of Mental Health in African Societies (Commonwealth Health Partnership, 2013), 59.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme (MHLAP), ‘The Gambia: Mental Health Report 2012’, http://www.mhlap.org/…/mhlap%202012/mental_health_gambia_report.pdf (accessed 20 April 2015).

46 World Health Organisation, ‘The Gambia: Situational Analysis’, http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/country/thegambia/en/ (accessed 20 April 2015); Commonwealth Health, ‘Mental Health in the Gambia’, http://www.commonwealthhealth.org/africa/gambia (accessed 20 April 2015). See also ‘World Health Organisation, Mental Health Atlas 2005: Gambia (Geneva: World Health Organisation, 2005), 201; Peter Bartlett, Rachel Jenkins, and David Kiima, ‘Mental Health Law in the Community: Thinking about Africa’, International Journal of Mental Health Systems 5, no. 21 (2011): 1, 2, table 1), http://www.ijmhs.com/imedia/6872177595434431/supp1.doc (accessed 10 December 2014).

47 Juan Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture, Cruel and other Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Mission to Ghana’, 5 March 2014 United Nation's Human Rights Council (A/HRC/25/60/Add.1), para. 68; J. Abdulmalik et al., ‘Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme’, 1–2; Frank Njenga and Pius Kigamwa, ‘Kenya’, in International Perspectives on Mental Health, ed. Hamid Ghodse (The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011), 22.

48 Amuyunzu-Nyamango, The Social and Cultural Aspects of Mental Health, 59.

49 C. Abosi and D. Ozoji, Educating the Blind: A Descriptive Approach (Spectrum Books, 1985).

50 Ibid. See also Amuyunzu-Nyamango, The Social and Cultural Aspects of Mental Health, 59; Serge Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa’, African Journal of International and Comparative Law 21, no. 2 (2013): 219, 222. See further M. Eskay et al., ‘Disability within the African Culture’, US-China Education Review B 4 (2012): 473, 478; Abubakar Sanni and Francis Adebayo, ‘Nigerian Mental Health Act 2013 Assessment: A Policy Towards Modern International Standards’, American Academic and Scholarly Research Journal 1, no. 6 (2014): 1.

51 Amuyunzu-Nyamango, The Social and Cultural Aspects of Mental Health, 60; Natalie Drew, et al., ‘Mental Health Law in Africa: Analysis from a Human Rights Perspective’, Journal of Public Mental Health 1291 (2013): 10, 14.

52 Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter’, 222.

53 Amuyunzu-Nyamango, The Social and Cultural Aspects of Mental Health, 59; Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter’, 222; Sanni and Adebayo, ‘Nigerian Mental Health Act 2013 Assessment’.

54 Irrespective of the kind of mental disorder they are suffering from, whether by reason of serious and acute mental disorder or longer-term disabilities. The author recognises that these raise other issues of deprivation of liberty and some other human rights issues that fall outside the scope of this article.

55 Drew, Funk et al., ‘Mental Health Law in Africa’, 17.

56 Ibid.

57 Catherine Draper, Crick Lund et al., ‘Mental Health Policy in South Africa: Development Process and Content’, Health Policy and Planning 4, no. 5 (2009): 342.

58 Sara Cooper et al., ‘Viewing Uganda's Mental Health System Through a Human Rights Lens’, International Review of Psychiatry 22, no. 6 (2010): 578.

59 Katherine Sorsdahl et al., ‘Traditional Healer Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Referral of the Mentally Ill to Western Doctors in South Africa’, Transcultural Psychiatry 47, no. 4 (2010): 591, 596–7.

60 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14; Jocelyn Edwards, ‘Ghana's Mental Health Patients Confined to Prayer Camps’, The Lancet: World Report 383 (2014): 15, 15; Benedict Carey, ‘The Chains of Mental Illness’ (New York Times, 11 October 2015), http://www.globalmentalhealth.org/chains-mental-illness-west-africa (accessed 27 February 2017).

61 Ibid.

62 Sanni and Adebayo, ‘Nigerian Mental Health Act 2013 Assessment’. In the Gambia PWMD are detained in regular jails to prevent them from absconding or avoiding treatment. See MHLAP, ‘The Gambia: Mental Health Report 2012’.

63 Sanni and Adebayo, ‘Nigerian Mental Health Act 2013 Assessment’.

64 Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: Prisoners’ Rights Systematically Flouted’, 2008 (AFR 44/001/2008), 37; Michelle Funk, Natalie Drew, and Martin Knapp, ‘Mental Health, Poverty and Development’, Journal of Public Mental Health 11, no. 4 (2012): 166, 169; Sanni and Adebayo, ‘Nigerian Mental Health Act 2013 Assessment’.

65 Criminal detention of PWMD raises important issues such as insanity defences or fitness to plead. These are however beyond the scope of this article.

66 There are reported cases of detention for up to eight and 18 years. Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: Prisoners’ Rights Systematically Flouted’, 37–8; Funk, Drew and Knapp, ‘Mental Health, Poverty and Development’, 169.

67 Human Rights Watch, ‘Like a Death Sentence’, 10–11; Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14.

68 World Health Organisation, Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation (Geneva: WHO, 2005); Cooper et al., ‘Viewing Uganda's Mental Health System’, 578.

69 Human Rights Watch, ‘Like a Death Sentence’, 42; Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14–15.

70 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14.

71 Ibid.

72 Peter Bartlett and Vanja Hamzic, Reforming Mental Disability Law in Africa: Practical Tips and Suggestions (University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre/Nuffield Foundation, 2010), 4, http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/…/reformingmentaldisabilitylawinafrica.pdf (accessed 10 December 2014); Mental Health and Poverty Project, ‘Developing and Adopting Mental Health Law in Africa: Lessons from Ghana, Zambia and Uganda’ (July 2010), http://www.psychiatry.uct.ac.za/mhapp (accessed 12 January 2015).

73 Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in International Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009), 341.

74 Oye Gureje, ‘Nigeria’, in International Perspectives on Mental Health, ed. Hamid Ghodse (The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011), 44. New draft mental health legislation is yet to be passed by parliament.

75 J. B. Asare, ‘Ghana’, in Ghodse (ed.), International Perspectives on Mental Health, 17–18. See also Mental Health and Poverty Project, ‘Developing and Adopting Mental Health Law’. Ghana now has a new Act, the Mental Health Act 2012 (Act 846). It is yet to be fully implemented.

76 Mental Health and Poverty Project, ‘Developing and Adopting Mental Health Law’; Crick Lund, Tom Sutcliffe et al., ‘Protecting the Rights of the Mentally Ill in Poorly Resourced Settings: Experience from Four African Countries’, in Mental Health and Human Rights: Vision, Praxis and Courage, ed. Michael Dudley et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 530–1.

77 Bartlett, Jenkins, and Kiima, ‘Mental Health Law in the Community’, 4.

78 Lund, Sutcliffe et al., ‘Protecting the Rights of the Mentally Ill’, 530–1.

79 Ibid.

80 Section 2.2 above.

81 Zegveld & Ephraim v Eritrea, Communication No. 250/2002 (ACHPR 2002).

82 Even the African Commission's recently adopted Guidelines on the Conditions of Arrest, Police Custody and Pre-trial Detention in Africa do not specifically address that issue, http://www.achpr.org/instruments/guidelines_arrest_detention/ (accessed 1 May 2015).

83 A psychiatric unit of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Gambia.

84 Article 2.

85 Article 3(1).

86 Article 3(2).

87 Article 5.

88 Article 6.

89 Article 7.

90 Article 13(1).

91 Article 16, when read together with art. 18(4), which states that ‘The aged and disabled shall also have the right to special measures of protection in keeping with their physical or moral needs’.

92 Purohit & Moore, para. 64.

93 Ibid., para. 64.

94 Ibid., para. 65.

95 Ibid., para. 66.

96 Ibid., para. 68.

97 Ibid., para. 68.

98 Ibid.

99 Ibid.

100 Purohit & Moore, para. 72.

101 Ibid., para. 68.

102 Ibid.

103 The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre and another v Nigeria, Communication No. 155/96 (2001). See also Gino Naldi, ‘The African Union and the Regional Human Rights System’, in Evans and Murray, eds., The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 32–3.

104 The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre and another v Nigeria, paras 60, 63–5. For instance, ‘the combined effect of Articles 14, 16 and 18(1) reads into the Charter a right to shelter or housing’ while ‘the right to food is inseparably linked to the dignity of human beings’ and implicit in the right to life (art. 4), the right to health (art. 16) and the right to economic, social and cultural development (art. 22).

105 Media Rights Agenda v Nigeria, Communication No. 224/98 (2000).

106 Ibid., para. 71.

107 See discussion in section 3 above.

108 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14–15.

109 MHLAP, ‘Gambia Mental Health Report 2012’, 14.

110 It is asserted that PWMD evoke more sympathy from the community if they visit traditional healers rather than medical professionals. See Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, The Social and Cultural Aspects of Mental Health in African Societies, 61.

111 Ahmed Okasha, ‘Mental Health in Africa: The Role of WPA’, World Psychiatry 32 (2002): 34.

112 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14; Human Rights Watch, ‘Like a Death Sentence’, 7, 8, 23, 30–7; Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, ‘Denying Ghana's Disabled Their Rights: The Disability Act, 5 years on’, 23 June 2011, http://chriafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/denying-ghanas-disabled-their-rights.html (accessed 5 March 2015).

113 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14; Human Rights Watch, ‘Like a Death Sentence’, 7, 8, 23, 30–7; Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, ‘Denying Ghana's Disabled Their Rights’.

114 See section 3 above. See also Bartlett and Hamzic, ‘Reforming Mental Disability Law’, 4; Drew, Funk et al., ‘Mental Health Law in Africa’, 10–20; Mental Health and Poverty Project, ‘Developing and Adopting Mental Health Law in Africa’.

115 Njenga and Kigamwa, ‘Kenya’, 24.

116 V. Doku, A. Wusu-Taky, and J. Awakame, ‘Implementing the Mental Health Act in Ghana: Any Challenges Ahead?’ Ghana Medical Journal 46, no. 4 (2012): 241; Anwumi Ofuani, ‘The Right to Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria: How Enabled? African Human Rights Law Journal 11 (2011): 639, 640–1.

117 Doku et al., ‘Implementing the Mental Health Act in Ghana’, 241–50.

118 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 15.

119 Bartlet et al., ‘Mental Health Law in the Community’, 1.

120 Peter Bartlett, ‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Mental Health Law’, Modern Law Review 75, no. 5 (2012): 752, 772; Anna Lawson, ‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: New Era or False Dawn’, Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 34, no. 2 (2007): 563, 612.

121 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annual Report, A/HRC/10/48 (26 January 2009), paras 48–9, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/60UDHR/detention_infonote_4.pdf (accessed 29 September 2015). See also Tina Minkowitz, ‘Prohibition of Compulsory Mental Health Treatment and Detention Under the CRPD’ (2011), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1876132http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1876132 (accessed 29 September 2015).

122 According to art. 34 of the CRPD, the Committee is the body charged with monitoring its implementation.

123 Committee on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ‘Guidelines on article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, Adopted during the Committee's 14th session held in September 2015 in Geneva, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/14thsession/GuidelinesOnArticle14.doc (accessed 26 February 2017). See for instance the CRPD Committee, concluding observations on Spain (CRPD/C/ESP/CO/1) 19 October 2011, paras 35–6; Tunisia (CRPD/C/TUN/CO/1) 13 May 2011, paras 24–5); and Peru (CRPD/C/PER/CO/1) 9 May 2012, paras 28–9.

124 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annual Report, para. 48. See for instance the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Tunisia and Spain regarding the abolition of discriminatory laws in the reports cited above (note 120).

125 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annual Report, para. 48.

126 Bartlett, ‘The United Nations Convention’, 773–5.

127 HRC, ‘General Comment No. 35’, CCPR/C/GC/37/7554/E. According to para. 1.1, it replaces General Comment 8, which expounds on the meaning of art. 9.

128 Fijalkowska v Poland, UN Doc CCPR/84/D/1061/2002.

129 Ibid., para. 8.2. See also the HRC's earlier decision in A v New Zealand (754/97).

130 General Comment No. 35, II.19.

131 Ibid., I.3.

132 Ibid., I.5.

133 Ibid., I.4.

134 Ibid., III.28.

135 Ibid., II.19. See A v New Zealand, para. 7.2. See also Concluding Observations on Bulgaria (2011) UN Doc CCPR/C/BGR/CO/3, para. 17(a).

136 Engel and others v Netherlands (1976) 1 EHRR 647 (App. No. 5100/71), para. 57; Ireland v UK (1978) 2 EHRR 25, para. 194; Winterwerp v Netherlands, para. 37.

137 Winterwerp v Netherlands.

138 Ibid., para. 37.

139 Ibid., para. 39.

140 Gostin and Gable, ‘The Human Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities: A Global Perspective on the Application of Human Rights Principles to Mental Health’, Maryland Law Review 63, no. 1 (2004): 20, 67.

141 Winterwerp v Netherlands, para. 37.

142 Ibid., para. 39. See also Varbanov v Bulgaria (2000) ECHR (App. No. 31365/96), 11, para. 46.

143 Winterwerp v Netherlands, para. 39.

144 X v United Kingdom (1981) ECHR (App. No.7215/73). See Gostin and Gable, ‘The Human Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities’, 68.

145 Article 5(4) of the European Convention provides that everyone deprived of his/her liberty shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his/her detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his/her release ordered if detention is not lawful. See Winterwerp v Netherlands, para. 55.

146 X v United Kingdom, paras 24–5.

147 Keondjbiharie v The Netherlands (App. No. 11487/85) Judgment of 25 October 1990, Series A, No. 185-B.

148 Stanev v Bulgaria (2012) ECHR 46 (App. No. 36760/06).

149 Pauline Prior, ‘Mentally Disordered Offenders and the European Court of Human Rights’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 30 (2007): 546, 547.

150 See for instance Stanev v Bulgaria, D.D. v Lithuania (2012) ECHR 254 (App. No. 13469/06); Varbanov v Bulgaria; Kallweit v Germany (2011) ECHR (App. No. 17792/07); Shtukaturov v Russia (2008) ECHR 223 (App. No. 44009/05).

151 Prior, ‘Mentally Disordered Offenders’, 547; Brendan Kelly, Dignity, Mental Health and Human Rights: Coercion and the Law (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), 16.

152 They include, respectively, information as to reasons for arrests and notification of charges (art. 7(4)); prompt presentation before a judge or judicial officer authorised by law and entitlement to trial within a reasonable time or release (art. 7(5)); and the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention (art. 7(6)).

153 Lance Gable, Lawrence Gostin et al., ‘Mental Health and Due Process in the Americas: Protecting the Human Rights of Persons Involuntarily Admitted to and Detained in Psychiatric Institutions’, Pan American Journal of Public Health 18, no. 4/5 (2005): 366, 369–70.

154 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (OAS): ‘Press Release No. 10/01, 08 June 2001’, http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2001/Press10-01.htm (accessed 17 December 2014). See also Gable and Gostin, ‘Mental Health and Due Process in the Americas’, 370.

155 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (OAS), ‘IACHR Urges States to Protect the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at Mental Health Facilities’, Press Release No. 179/16, 02 December 2016’, http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2016/179.asp (accessed 28 February 2017).

156 Victor Rosiario Congo v Ecuador. Case 11.427, Report No. 63/99; Inter-Am CHR, OEA/Ser.L/v/11.102 Doc .6 rev. April 13 (1999), paras 52, 54.

157 Frans Viljoen and Japhet Biegon, ‘The Architecture for an African Disability Rights Mechanism’ (Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities/PULP, 2011), 38.

158 Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter’, 223–47; Viljoen and Biegon, ‘The Architecture for an African Disability Rights Mechanism’, 38–45; Heléne Combrinck and Lawrence Mute, ‘Developments Regarding Disability Rights During 2013: The African Charter and African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’, African Disability Rights Yearbook 2 (2014): 309; Louis Oyaro, ‘Africa at Crossroads: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, American University International Law Review 30, no. 2: 347; 360–2.

159 African Union, Continental Plan of Action for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities 8 (1999).

160 Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, ‘What Is The African Decade?’ 1 (2010), http://www.africadisabilityalliance.org (accessed 5 March 2015).

161 van Reenen and Combrinck, ‘The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, 138–9; Oyaro, ‘Africa at Crossroads’, 347, 371.

162 Adopted by Executive Council Decision EX.CL/Dec.473 (XIV) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 26–30 January 2009.

163 African Union Commission Department of Social Affairs, ‘Continental Plan of Action for the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities’, 9, http://www.africadisabilityalliance.org/index.php/resource-centre-ksrc (accessed 5 March 2015).

164 Ibid., 28.

165 Resolution on the Appointment of a Focal Point on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa, ACHPR/Res.118 (XXXXII 2007), http://www.achpr.org/sessions/55th/resolutions/269/ (accessed 5 March 2015).

166 Resolution on the Transformation of the Focal Point on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa into a Working Group on the Rights of Older Persons and People with Disabilities in Africa, ACHPR/Res. 45/143 (XXXXV 2009), http://www.achpr.org/sessions/45th/resolutions/143/?prn=1 (accessed 5 March 2015).

167 See Terms of Reference of the Working Group, sections a–e, http://www.achpr.org/sessions/55th/resolutions/269/ (accessed 10 December 2014).

168 Yeung Sik Yuen (Commissioner of the ACHPR), ‘International Frameworks and Instruments on the Human Rights of Older Persons and Identification of Existing Gaps at International Level: Update on Multilateral Processes – The African Process’, social.un.org/ageing-working-group/documents/…/YeungSikYeung.pdf (accessed 5 March 2015).

169 Viljoen and Biegon, ‘The Architecture for an African Disability Rights Mechanism’, 36–7. See also Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter’, 223; Mureriwa, ‘The Draft African Disability Protocol’, 3.

170 Viljoen and Biegon, ‘The Architecture for an African Disability Rights Mechanism’, 36–7. See also Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter’, 223; Mureriwa, ‘The Draft African Disability Protocol’, 3.

171 It was formerly known as the Secretariat for the African Decade of People with Disability. Its name was changed on 11 April 2014 to better reflect its mandate and dissociate it from a ‘decade’ timeframe. See African Disability Alliance: ‘Welcome’, http://www.africadisabilityalliance.org/ (accessed 5 March 2015).

172 Viljoen and Biegon, ‘The Architecture for an African Disability Rights Mechanism’, 36–7, 40; Combrinck and Mute, ‘Developments Regarding Disability Rights’, 313; Kamga, ‘A Call for a Protocol to the African Charter’, 223; Mureriwa, ‘The Draft African Disability Protocol’, 3.

173 Combrinck and Mute, ‘Developments Regarding Disability Rights’, 313; Viljoen and Biegon, ‘The Architecture for an African Disability Rights Mechanism’, 10.

174 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ‘Comments Invited on Draft Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa April 2014’, http://www.achpr.org/news/2014/04/d121 (accessed 2 March 2015).

175 Email communication with Mr Lawrence Mute, Honourable Commissioner of the ACHPR, 17 May 2015.

176 Yeung Sik Yuen, ‘Intersession Activity Report of Commissioner Yeung Kam JohnYeung Sik Yuen’ (6–20 April 2016), http://.achpr.org/files/sessions/58th/inter-act-reps/247/580s_inter_session_report_yeung_eng.pdf (accessed 10 May 2016).

177 Article 5(1).

178 Section 3 above.

179 Section 3.2 above.

180 Section 4.1 above.

181 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Annual Report, A/HRC/10/48 (26 January 2009), 48.

182 P. Bartlett, ‘The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, Modern Law Review 75, no. 5 (2012): 752.

183 Ibid., 773.

184 Ibid.

185 Evans and Murray, ‘The State Reporting Mechanism of the African Charter’, in Evans and Murray, eds., The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 63.

186 Bartlett, Jenkins, and Kima, ‘Mental Health Law in the Community’, 2–3.

187 Peter Bartlett asserts with respect to the CRPD that the experience of deinstitutionalisation thus far is that, where the closure of institutions is not followed by the provision of adequate community services, it can have severely negative consequences for PWMD. Bartlett, ‘The United Nations Convention’, 775.

188 See section 3 above.

189 African Commission, ‘Comments Invited’; Combrinck and Mute, ‘Developments Regarding Disability Rights’, 314–15.

190 African Commission, ‘Comments Invited on Draft Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa April 2014’.

191 In The Gambia, the two most recognised traditional healers have been willing to ‘cooperate’ with conventional psychiatric institutions. See MHLAP, ‘Gambia Mental Health Report 2012’, 8.

192 Mendez, ‘Special Rapporteur on Torture: Ghana’, 14.

193 Article 28(1)(a).

194 Article 28(1)(b).

195 Evans and Murray, ‘The State Reporting Mechanism’, 62–9 discuss this problem in depth.

196 Oyaro, ‘Africa at Crossroads’, 359.

197 Ibid., 367.

198 Ebenezer Durojaye, ‘The Potential of the Expert Committee of the African Children's Charter in Advancing Adolescent Sexual Health and Rights in Africa’, The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa 46, no. 3 (2013): 385.