On
December 21, within the framework of events dedicated to the International
Human Rights Day, the National Preventive Mechanism of the Defender's Office
organized a discussion on the topic "Issues of ensuring the rights of
persons with mental health issues".
The
Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan, Deputy Minister of Health Armen Nazaryan
and Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Tatevik Stepanyan made their
opening remarks.
The
representatives of the Human Rights Defender's Office, the Prosecutor's Office
of the Republic of Armenia, the Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
mental health centers, competent state agencies, civil society organizations
and experts of the National Prevention Mechanism also took part in the
discussion.
In
her speech, Anahit Manasyan highlighted the importance of conducting
discussions in a format, that provides an opportunity to raise the issues of
the field from different perspectives.
"The
Human Rights Defender’s Office has productive and active cooperation with
various state bodies, mental health centers, representatives of civil society
organizations and other competent bodies on issues related to the rights of
persons with mental health issues.
Unfortunately,
along with this, a number of problems still remain unresolved, leading to such
a situation where we have an incomplete system of human rights protection,"
stated Anahit Manasyan.
The
Defender especially emphasized that all the spheres and relevant bodies related
to the rights of persons with mental health issues were involved in the
framework of the discussion, since the existing issues should be examined
comprehensively from different perspectives, in order to be able to outline
effective ways of their solution.
During
the event, the state of ensuring of people’s rights in psychiatric institutions
was discussed. Particularly, the provision of community-based services, the
need for a unified policy in the field, the problems related to voluntary and
involuntary treatment, the use of coercive measures and restraint mechanisms of
a medical nature, insufficient detention conditions in psychiatric
institutions, overcrowding, the use of expired medication and a number of other
issues were also discussed.
The
need to improve professional training and social guarantees of medical staff in
psychiatric organizations was also highlighted.
The
discussion was organized within the framework of the "Accountable
Institutions and Protection of Human Rights in Armenia" program funded by
the European Union with the support of UNDP, UNICEF, the United Nations
Population Fund and the OSCE.
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