The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities effectively prohibits guardianship, psychiatric detention and forced treatment, and adopts a support model of legal capacity as the alternative. The Special Rapporteur on Torture says that forced psychiatric interventions may constitute torture or ill-treatment. In this workshop, Tina Minkowitz, one of the drafters of the CRPD, will explain the new paradigm of legal capacity and the relevance of the international framework on torture, and will suggest ways that U.S. lawyers and advocates can bring the CRPD standards into domestic law. 

Tina Minkowitz is founder of the Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and was one of many individuals who contributed to drafting the CRPD, representing the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry throughout the CRPD negotiations and serving on a 40-member working group that drafted the official text. Ms. Minkowitz has given expert presentations to the United Nations, government officials and NGOs in several countries, and consults with interested parties analyzing draft legislation in light of the CRPD. She is the author of “The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Right to be Free from Nonconsensual Psychiatric Interventions,” which includes arguments on torture and ill-treatment, and has presented with the Special Rapporteur on Torture on this subject.

This teleconference is part of the USNUSP "Community Education and Skill-Building Initiative," which will provide teleconferences to help users and survivors of psychiatry to build the skills and knowledge for effective human rights activism.
Please click here to follow along with the presentation during the call.

The call-in information:
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 775-7300
Participant Access Code: 1090243#