[CLOSED] Rights of the Mentally Ill

[Copperward]

OOC: After posting a draft on gun control for the GA, I received a lot of feedback on the best ways to tackle gun violence. Many pointed out that it would be far more effective to address the root causes of gun violence such as the treatment and well-being of the mentally ill. After looking through the passed proposals of the GA and found none that dealt with securing the rights and well-being of the mentally ill. I've changed my goals from solely tackling the root causes of gun violence to creating a comprehensive bill which recognizes mentally ill individuals' legal rights.

Rights of the Mentally Ill
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Category: Human Rights| Strength: Significant| Proposed by: Copperward

Article I, Preamble:
The World Assembly has, since its founding, upheld the principles of fair and just treatment of all. However, this governing body has never formally recognized nor secured the rights and well-being of the mentally ill. This neglect has, as a result, been to the terrible detriment of the mentally ill. Some member nations, to the dismay of the majority of the World Assembly, have grossly discriminated against and taken advantage of mentally ill, even subjecting them to government-sanctioned asylums whose treatments are ineffective, barbaric, and physically and emotionally taxing solely because of their mental afflictions. The World Assembly hereby enacts this resolution to legally recognize and protect mentally ill individuals' civil rights and freedoms, and promote efforts to provide them with much-needed mental health services.

Article II, Definitions:
1) A “mentally ill individual” will, for the purposes of this resolution, be defined as an individual with a psychiatric disorder, or behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning including but not limited to anxiety, eating, mood, neurodevelopmental and personality disorders.

Article III, Mandates:
1) Member nations are strongly encouraged to invest more resources and financial aid into mental health treatment centers and programs.

2) Member nations are further encouraged to properly educate their citizens on the topic of mental health.

3) Member nations must acknowledge the mentally ill's right to be treated with respect and dignity and legally recognize that they are entitled to the same rights and privileges as other sapient species. Mentally ill individuals must therefore have the same legal rights exercised freely by sapient individuals under international and domestic law.

a) Member nations are obligated to make all public and legal services accessible to the mentally ill.

4) All mentally ill individuals are entitled to an education that meets their needs. A mentally ill individual cannot be excluded from the public schooling system on the sole basis of their disability without a suitable substitute for a fulfilling education. Nations are required to allow the mentally ill to take part in public or private schooling and/or provide an education system that meets their unique needs and properly prepares them for further education, employment, and independent living.

5) The World Health Authority is tasked with the additional responsibilities of:

a) Designing programs with the purpose of educating the public on mental illness and discourage abusive and derogatory behavior towards the mentally ill.
b) Researching mental illness' causes and potential treatment.
c) Produce outlines of effective treatments for certain mental afflictions that member nations are advised - but not legally required - to use.

[Copperward]

Drafts

Rights of the Mentally Ill
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Category: Human Rights| Strength: Significant| Proposed by: Copperward

Article I, Preamble:
The World Assembly has, since its founding, upheld the principles of fair and just treatment of all. However, the World Assembly has never formally recognized nor secured the rights and well-being of the mentally ill. This neglect has, as a result, been to the terrible detriment of the mentally ill. Some member nations, to the dismay of the majority of the World Assembly, have grossly discriminated and taken advantage of mentally ill, even subjecting them to government-sanctioned asylums whose treatments are ineffective, barbaric, and physically and emotionally taxing solely because of their mental afflictions. The World Assembly hereby enacts this resolution to legally recognize and protect mentally ill individuals' civil rights and freedoms, and promote efforts to provide them with much-needed mental health services.

Article II, Definitions:
1) A “mentally ill individual” will, for the purposes of this resolution, be defined as an individual with a psychiatric disorder, or behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning including but not limited to anxiety, eating, mood, neurodevelopmental and personality disorders.

Article III, Mandates:
1) Member nations are strongly encouraged to invest more resources and financial aid into mental health treatment centers and programs.

2) Member nations are further encouraged to properly educate their citizens on the topic of mental health.

3) Member nations must acknowledge the mentally ill's right to be treated with respect and dignity and recognize that they are entitled to the same rights and privileges as other sapient species under international and domestic law. Member nations are mandated to treat the mentally ill fairly, and are prohibited from enacting discriminatory policies against them.

a) Member nations are obligated to make all public and legal services accessible to the mentally ill.

4) Discrimination against the mentally ill in the workforce is strictly prohibited. These discriminatory practices include firing or refusing to hire a qualified individual with a disability on the grounds of their mental affliction, harassment, and segregation.

5) All mentally ill individuals are entitled to an education that meets their needs. A mentally ill individual cannot be excluded from the public schooling system on the sole basis of their disability. Nations are required to allow the mentally ill to take part in public or private schooling and/or provide an education system that meets their unique needs and properly prepares them for further education, employment, and independent living.

6) The World Health Authority is tasked with the additional responsibilities of:

a) Designing programs with the purpose of educating the public on mental illness and discourage abusive and derogatory behavior towards the mentally ill.
b) Researching and outlining effective treatments for certain mental afflictions.

Rights of the Mentally Ill
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Category: Human Rights| Strength: Significant| Proposed by: Copperward

Article I, Preamble:
The World Assembly has, since its founding, upheld the principles of fair and just treatment of all. However, the World Assembly has never formally recognized nor secured the rights and well-being of the mentally ill. This neglect has, as a result, been to the terrible detriment of the mentally ill. Some member nations, to the dismay of the majority of the World Assembly, have grossly discriminated and taken advantage of mentally ill, even subjecting them to government-sanctioned asylums whose treatments are ineffective, barbaric, and physically and emotionally taxing solely because of their mental afflictions. The World Assembly hereby enacts this resolution to legally recognize and protect mentally ill individuals' civil rights and freedoms, and promote efforts to provide them with much-needed mental health services.

Article II, Definitions:
1) A “mentally ill individual” will, for the purposes of this resolution, be defined as an individual with a psychiatric disorder, or behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning including but not limited to anxiety, eating, mood, neurodevelopmental and personality disorders.

Article III, Mandates:
1) Member nations are strongly encouraged to invest more resources and financial aid into mental health treatment centers and programs.

2) Member nations are further encouraged to properly educate their citizens on the topic of mental health.

3) All mentally ill individuals are entitled to the legal rights secured under international law. Mentally ill individuals are also entitled to fair treatment under the nation they reside in, and are secured same legal rights as citizens. The mentally ill shall not be denied any of the rights guaranteed by international or domestic law.

a) Any deliberate legal action of a member nation’s government to infringe upon mentally ill individuals’ rights is prohibited.

4) Mentally ill individuals have the right to be free from all forms of discrimination and abuse including but not limited to physical or verbal abuse and the practices of seclusion and restraint.

5) Mentally ill individuals have the right to autonomy and to make decisions on their lives, including their course of treatment. A mentally ill individual will not be forcefully subjected to medical treatment without their permission and/or the permission of their legal guardian(s).

6) The World Health Authority tasked with the additional responsibilities of:

a) Investigate allegations of the mistreatment of mentally ill individuals solely for their mental handicaps.
b) Research and outline effective treatments for certain mental afflictions.

[Kenmoria]

"Add the word “is” between “Authority” and “tasked” in clause 6."

[Araraukar]

OOC: And this is exactly how not already covered by existing resolutions?

[Copperward]

OOC: And this is exactly how not already covered by existing resolutions?

OOC: There are passed resolutions, I believe, that entitle all sapient species protections under international law, but none that guarantee that the mentally ill are protected from abusive discrimination, ineffective and cruel "treatments," and from robbing them of any freedom or autonomy. I also feel little attention has been put in improving treatment and investing resources in improving the well-being and quality of life of the mentally ill. I hope to address these issues in my proposal.

I'll make sure to look at the GA Resolutions and make sure I'm not duplicating anything. Thank you for pointing this out.

[Araraukar]

OOC: There are passed resolutions, I believe, that entitle all sapient species protections under international law, but none that guarantee that the mentally ill are protected from abusive discrimination (CoCR)(IPA), ineffective and cruel "treatments" (PRA)(IPA), and from robbing them of any freedom or autonomy (IPA). I also feel little attention has been put in improving treatment and investing resources in improving the well-being and quality of life of the mentally ill. I hope to address these issues in my proposal.

OOC: PRA, CoCR and IPA.

[Rafterland]

Dear sovereign nation of Copperward,

We have reasons to believe that your proposal, while it shows very good intent in a subject matter that is interestingly pertinent, is not sufficiently fit for the assembly yet.

Firstly, I commend the wording of Article II. All potential loopholes are in our opinion too implicitly covered to be viably considered.

Mandates 3 and 5 can be removed entirely as mental illnesses are clearly a matter of public health, of note being your usage of the words "medical" and "treatment". This would duplicate any previous resolution granting the same rights in regards to any other illness, and even if it doesn't exist yet (unlikely), it should still be discussed in the proper proposal. Also, there are very good reasons to leave the specifics of public health up to the member nations while still respecting a proper public health rights resolution as described above.

Mandate 4 has a very high chance of already being covered in resolutions pertaining to civil rights and discrimination. We urge you to remember that no proposal may rely on a resolution, and as was already said, furthering your research on the matter may be helpful to decide if removing this mandate might be required.

Mandate 6.a is a prerogative that should undoubtedly be left to member states, however it could be reworded to mandate the creation of an equivalent national body in every member state, fulfilling the intent of the proposal.
(ooc : I have the example of cap48 in belgium, they're doing a very fine job and are practically private, look it up !)

As such, we advise you to only keep mandates 1 and 2, focusing on requiring increased expenditure and education for mental illnesses, and mandate the creation of bodies of at most nationwide scope which would effectively enact mandate 6.

We conclude that this proposal has the potential of enabling positive legislation at state level and would be in favor of supporting it should the aforementioned issues be addressed.

With the utmost respect,

For the Rafterland Office for Foreign Affairs,
Director André VANDEPUTTE

PS: In the light of recent discussions on the matter, it seems that most mandates are covered in previous resolutions. We still advise you to word the first two in a way that incentivizes expenditure on the matter, for the good of the people.

[Kenmoria]

"Clause four needs a comma after “abuse”."

[Copperward]

OOC: I finished the second draft of the proposal. I would like to thank everyone for helping me thusfar in improving this proposal. I've corrected the grammar mistakes pointed out by the King of Grammar, Kenmoria (would you mind if I call you the King of Grammar in the future, Kenmoria? I almost always see you on the GA forums spreading your grammar expertise to writers.). I've also tried to remove anything (clauses 3 and 5) that could be struck down under the duplication rule. However, I still believe that there should be a clause recognizing the mentally ill's rights, but if everyone feels that there are already existing resolutions that have effectively covered this issue, then I'll remove it in the next draft. I have also removed 6a and replaced it with giving the WHA the responsibility of "Designing programs with the purpose of educating the public on mental illness and discourage abusive and derogatory behavior towards the mentally ill."

[Glorious Republic of Texas]

I believe that the true root is parenting. If a parent teaches their children the safety precautions in regards to a firearm and raises them to respect other people, then I don't think a person of that nature would even consider striking out in anger by means of a firearm

[Alpha Cassiopeiae]

"It is a valiant effort, Ambassador, and one certainly to be commended. However, the proposal really should be rewritten to conform more closely to General Assembly convention. I've written a rough draft of possible changes to Article I to better illustrate my point."

Article I, Preamble:
The World Assembly: has, since its founding, upheld the
APPLAUDING previous efforts to protect principles of fair and just treatment of all,
However, the World Assembly REALISING it has never formally recognized nor secured the rights and well-being of the mentally ill,
UNDERSTANDING that this neglect has, as a result, been to the terrible detriment of the mentally ill,
NOTING that some member nations, to the dismay of the majority of the World Assembly, have grossly discriminated and taken advantage of mentally ill, even subjecting them to government-sanctioned asylums whose treatments are ineffective, barbaric, and physically and emotionally taxing solely because of their mental afflictions,
The World Assembly hereby enacts this resolution HOPING to legally recognize and protect mentally ill individuals' civil rights and freedoms, and promote efforts to provide them with much-needed mental health services,
HEREBY:

OOC: In addition to that, there's also the issue raised by Araraukar about most of this potentially being duplication.

[Kenmoria]

"It is a valiant effort, Ambassador, and one certainly to be commended. However, the proposal really should be rewritten to conform more closely to General Assembly convention. I've written a rough draft of possible changes to Article I to better illustrate my point."

Article I, Preamble:
The World Assembly: has, since its founding, upheld the
APPLAUDING previous efforts to protect principles of fair and just treatment of all,
However, the World Assembly REALISING it has never formally recognized nor secured the rights and well-being of the mentally ill,
UNDERSTANDING that this neglect has, as a result, been to the terrible detriment of the mentally ill,
NOTING that some member nations, to the dismay of the majority of the World Assembly, have grossly discriminated and taken advantage of mentally ill, even subjecting them to government-sanctioned asylums whose treatments are ineffective, barbaric, and physically and emotionally taxing solely because of their mental afflictions,
The World Assembly hereby enacts this resolution HOPING to legally recognize and protect mentally ill individuals' civil rights and freedoms, and promote efforts to provide them with much-needed mental health services,
HEREBY:

OOC: In addition to that, there's also the issue raised by Araraukar about most of this potentially being duplication.

"Eh, I like the new format. It has been done before with a General Assembly Resolution and the new way of organising the pre-amble does resemble more closely a coherent thought rather than disjointed statements. I suppose it will be harder to get it passed when deviating from the normal standard, but sometimes it is worth it for the satisfaction afterwards. All in all, this delegation certainly supports the new format."

(would you mind if I call you the King of Grammar in the future, Kenmoria? I almost always see you on the GA forums spreading your grammar expertise to writers.)

(OOC: Thanks, I do try my best to be grammatically pedantic on these forums. You're fine to call me that, though always remember to capitalise "King" and "Grammar" .)

[Araraukar]

OOC: I am fairly amused that the more strict sects of several religions fall under mental illness with the current definition, but I'm also fairly sure that wasn't the intention...

[Copperward]

OOC: I am fairly amused that the more strict sects of several religions fall under mental illness with the current definition, but I'm also fairly sure that wasn't the intention...

OOC: Lol. It wasn't my intent and I hope I haven't given you the impression that it was. To prevent offending anyone by calling religious people mentally ill, what makes this definition applicable to strict sects of several religions and how do you think it could be changed to avoid this?

[Rafterland]

OOC: I am fairly amused that the more strict sects of several religions fall under mental illness with the current definition, but I'm also fairly sure that wasn't the intention...

OOC: Is there any legal precedent concerning sectary behavior, maybe related to civil rights ? Just curious.

[Araraukar]

OOC: what makes this definition applicable to strict sects of several religions

OOC: The "behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning including but not limited to anxiety, eating, mood" part of the definition.

Just "behavioral ... pattern ... impairment of personal functioning including ... eating" combination gets every single dietary restriction ever imposed by a religion. Further, Xtianity any religion that's heavy on the eternal damnation after death if you don't do what the religion tells you to, gets you with the "significant distress" bit. There are others, but those are the most obvious two.

how do you think it could be changed to avoid this?

You can't. And by that I mean that you can't define mental illness in a way that wouldn't catch some of the more extreme religious sects/religions - won't even have to go for what some people derisively call RPwank, since Real Life provides a lot of examples.

The way you could get around this problem, has already been done by existing resolutions, so your thingy really isn't needed. The issue has been covered already.

---

OOC: Is there any legal precedent concerning sectary behavior, maybe related to civil rights ? Just curious.

OOC: GA #35, The Charter of Civil Rights bans discrimination based on religion, among a whole lot of other things.

[Rafterland]

OOC: Is there any legal precedent concerning sectary behavior, maybe related to civil rights ? Just curious.

OOC: GA #35, The Charter of Civil Rights bans discrimination based on religion, among a whole lot of other things.

OOC: So, would sectary behavior be defined as not necessarily based on religion or any other discriminatory topic, the right of deciding if such a link can be made case by case recognized as national and then all sectary behavior deemed to be psychologically damaging both in intent and outcome being outright banned internationally, all of which being covered in a new proposal (in effect banning what could be defined as criminal sectarism), would any past legislation still prevent such a proposal ?

[Kenmoria]

OOC: GA #35, The Charter of Civil Rights bans discrimination based on religion, among a whole lot of other things.

OOC: So, would sectary behavior be defined as not necessarily based on religion or any other discriminatory topic, the right of deciding if such a link can be made case by case recognized as national and then all sectary behavior deemed to be psychologically damaging both in intent and outcome being outright banned internationally, all of which being covered in a new proposal (in effect banning what could be defined as criminal sectarism), would any past legislation still prevent such a proposal ?

(OOC: If you would exclude anything caused by religion as a mental illness, that would mean that actual psychological diseases caused by the more extreme sects of religion would be unjustly excluded. I would recommend looking through RL definitions and starting from there.)

[Rafterland]

OOC: So, would sectary behavior be defined as not necessarily based on religion or any other discriminatory topic, the right of deciding if such a link can be made case by case recognized as national and then all sectary behavior deemed to be psychologically damaging both in intent and outcome being outright banned internationally, all of which being covered in a new proposal (in effect banning what could be defined as criminal sectarism), would any past legislation still prevent such a proposal ?

(OOC: If you would exclude anything caused by religion as a mental illness, that would mean that actual psychological diseases caused by the more extreme sects of religion would be unjustly excluded. I would recommend looking through RL definitions and starting from there.)

OOC:

Interesting. Could GAR35 be danced around by separating the ideological values of an organization or an individual from the criminal relevance of their actions ?

[Kenmoria]

(OOC: If you would exclude anything caused by religion as a mental illness, that would mean that actual psychological diseases caused by the more extreme sects of religion would be unjustly excluded. I would recommend looking through RL definitions and starting from there.)

OOC:

Interesting. Could GAR35 be danced around by separating the ideological values of an organization or an individual from the criminal relevance of their actions ?

(OOC: GAR #35 could be avoided by putting in a clause that says something like, "CLARIFIES that behaviours caused by the normal following a religion or ideology are not classified as mental illness under this resolution;" though this might look a bit clunky.)

[Copperward]

Bump

[New-Brussels]

"I recon that mandates 3, 4 and 5 could still be duplicates of aforementioned passed law."

[Copperward]

"I recon that mandates 3, 4 and 5 could still be duplicates of aforementioned passed law."

"How so?" Inquires Ambassador Bentley. "To my knowledge, none of the previously mentioned resolutions explicitly recognize and grant the mentally ill the same civil rights as other sapient species under domestic and international law, ban discrimination, and entitle the mentally ill to a fulfilling education."

[Kenmoria]

"I recon that mandates 3, 4 and 5 could still be duplicates of aforementioned passed law."

"How so?" Inquires Ambassador Bentley. "To my knowledge, none of the previously mentioned resolutions explicitly recognize and grant the mentally ill the same civil rights as other sapient species under domestic and international law, ban discrimination, and entitle the mentally ill to a fulfilling education."

"The Charter of Civil Rights bans discrimination on the basis of mental disability or condition."

[Copperward]

"How so?" Inquires Ambassador Bentley. "To my knowledge, none of the previously mentioned resolutions explicitly recognize and grant the mentally ill the same civil rights as other sapient species under domestic and international law, ban discrimination, and entitle the mentally ill to a fulfilling education."

"The Charter of Civil Rights bans discrimination on the basis of mental disability or condition."

"Lewitt's got ya there," jeers High Diplomat Giantelli childishly towards Ambassador Bentley.

Sighing at Giantelli's petty comment, Bentley responds to Ambassador Lewitt with "Thank you for pointing this out to us, Ambassador Lewitt. I will address this in the next draft to avoid any issues that may arise from the duplication rule."