Joining forces against torture and other ill-treatment: Regional meeting of National Preventive Mechanisms and civil society organizations on mental health in detention

The sixth regional meeting for National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) from the OSCE region will take place on 9 and 10 November in Copenhagen, Denmark. Building on participants’ experiences and expertise, it will help identify and share good practices on how to monitor mental health in various settings and on methodological aspects of their work.

The specific objectives of the meeting are:

• To explore the risk factors and situations that contribute to torture and other ill-treatment of people with mental health conditions in detention and ways to address them;
• To examine standards, monitoring practices and NPM strategies to address challenges related to mental health across different detention contexts; 
• To enable interaction between NPMs, CSOs and experts to share and identify good practices and reinforce co-operation;
• To help NPMs make better use of their reporting and recommendation powers to advocate for change.

Participation in this meeting is by invitation only. The meeting is part of ODIHR’s ongoing work to assist participating States in the fight against torture.

Background

National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) have a mandate to monitor all places where people are or may be deprived of liberty. While many issues are specific to particular settings, there are also a number of cross-cutting risks and vulnerabilities. Mental health is one such issue. The prevalence of mental health conditions is high among people deprived of liberty. Some mental health issues may be present before arrival and/or be exacerbated by the fact of being detained. Mental health conditions may also develop during detention itself, including as a consequence of treatment and conditions. When a person is deprived of liberty, states have a responsibility to care for their health, both in terms of detention conditions and of any treatment that may be necessary as a result of those conditions. Related to this is a right to medical care which is of an equivalent standard to that provided to the community. This applies to all people in detention, but particular attention needs to be given to groups in situations of vulnerability and to cases where intersectional factors combine to increase risks.