Mental Health and Human Rights

"Mental disorders are ubiquitous and profoundly disabling, and people suffering from them frequently endure the worst conditions of life. In recent decades both mental health and human rights have emerged as areas of practice, inquiry, national policy-making, and shared international concern. Human rights monitoring and reporting are core features of public administration in most countries, and human rights law has burgeoned. Mental health also enjoys a new dignity in scholarship, international discussions and programs, mass media coverage, and political debate. Today's experts insist that it impacts on every aspect of health and human well-being, and so becomes essential to achieving human rights. It is remarkable however, that the struggle for human rights over the past two centuries largely bypassed the plight of those with mental disabilities.^ Mental health is frequently absent from routine health and social policy-making and research, and from many global health initiatives, for example, the Millennium Development Goals. Yet the impact of mental disorder is profound, not least when combined with poverty, mass trauma, and social disruption, as in many poorer countries. Stigma