Society is largely blind-often willfully blind-to the ongoing violations of international human rights law when it comes to the treatment of persons with mental disabilities. Despite a robust set of international law principles, standards and doctrines, and the recent ratification of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, people with mental disabilities continue to live in some of the harshest conditions that exist in any society. These conditions are the product of neglect, lack of legal protection against improper and abusive treatment, and social attitudes that demean, trivialize and ignore the humanity of persons with disabilities.
International Human Rights and Mental Disability Law: When the Silenced are Heard draws attention to these issues in order to shed light on deplorable conditions that governments continue to ignore, and to invigorate the debate on a social policy issue that remains a low priority for most of the world's nations. Examining the mistreatment of persons with mental disabilities around the world, Michael Perlin identifies universal factors that contaminate mental disability law, including lack of comprehensive legislation and of independent counsel; inadequate care; poor or nonexistent community programming; and inhumane forensic systems. Using examples from Western and Eastern Europe, South America, Africa and Asia, Perlin examines and summarizes the growing field of international mental health law, arguing that governmental inaction demeans human dignity, denies personal autonomy, and disregards the most authoritative and comprehensive prescription of human rights obligations. As Perlin
argues, these issues pertain to all citizens of the world who value human rights and who care about how we treat those of us who may be most vulnerable. International Human Rights and Mental Disability Law is an indispensable resource for scholars, policymakers, governmental officials, and mental health professionals who care about the treatment of those with disabilities, and to human rights advocates and activists worldwide.
Industry Reviews
"International Human rights and Mental Disability Law: When the Silenced Are Heard is the definitive text on the analysis of international law, treaties, protocols, covenants, and conventions regarding mental disability issues. Although a treasure to foreign and international teachers and practitioners, Professor Perlin's book also focuses on areas-- such as sanism and pretextuality-- that may provide some insight for domestic criminal defense and
mental health lawyers... I strongly recommend this book to anyone practicing criminal law or working with mental health issues. Professor Perlin wrote it for the international lawyer audience, but he has let some
light shine through for all of us." -- Robert M. Sanger, Vice President of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, The Champion
"While the author has written extensively in the past on domestic issues in the US, he has broadened his analytical lens to focus on the current relationship between international human rights law and mental disability law. Perlin thoroughly reviews international human rights law and evaluates mental disability legal doctrine in a comparative law context. He moves on to define the issues that must be addressed in order to safeguard the human rights of the
mentally disabled on an international scale, namely the "lack of comprehensive legislation, lack of independent counsel, inadequate care, lack of community programming, and inhumane forensic systems."
Perlin's social, political, and legal analysis of rightsbased international mental disability law and its applications addresses the gap in the protection of the human rights of the mentally disabled around the globe." -- Health and Human Rights
