A/HRC/22/53 68. Involuntary commitment to psychiatric institutions has been well documented.83 There are well-documented examples of people living their whole lives in such psychiatric or social care institutions. 84 The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been very explicit in calling for the prohibition of disability-based detention, i.e. civil commitment and compulsory institutionalization or confinement based on disability. 85 It establishes that community living, with support, is no longer a favourable policy development but an internationally recognized right.86 The Convention radically departs from this approach by forbidding deprivation of liberty based on the existence of any disability, including mental or intellectual, as discriminatory. Article 14, paragraph 1 (b), of the Convention unambiguously states that “the existence of a disability shall in no case justify a deprivation of liberty”. Legislation authorizing the institutionalization of persons with disabilities on the grounds of their disability without their free and informed consent must be abolished. This must include the repeal of provisions authorizing institutionalization of persons with disabilities for their care and treatment without their free and informed consent, as well as provisions authorizing the preventive detention of persons with disabilities on grounds such as the likelihood of them posing a danger to themselves or others, in all cases in which such grounds of care, treatment and public security are linked in legislation to an apparent or diagnosed mental illness (A/HRC/10/48, paras. 48, 49). 69. Deprivation of liberty on grounds of mental illness is unjustified if its basis is discrimination or prejudice against persons with disabilities. Under the European Convention on Human Rights, mental disorder must be of a certain severity in order to justify detention.87 The Special Rapporteur believes that the severity of the mental illness is not by itself sufficient to justify detention; the State must also show that detention is necessary to protect the safety of the person or of others. Except in emergency cases, the individual concerned should not be deprived of his liberty unless he has been reliably shown to be of “unsound mind”.88 As detention in a psychiatric context may lead to nonconsensual psychiatric treatment,89 the mandate has stated that deprivation of liberty that is based on the grounds of a disability and that inflicts severe pain or suffering could fall under the scope of the Convention against Torture (A/63/175, para. 65). In making such an assessment, factors such as fear and anxiety produced by indefinite detention, the infliction of forced medication or electroshock, the use of restraints and seclusion, the segregation from family and community, etc., should be taken into account. 90 70. Moreover, the effects of institutionalization of individuals who do not meet appropriate admission criteria, as is the case in most institutions which are off the monitoring radar and lack appropriate admission oversight, 91 raise particular questions under prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Inappropriate or unnecessary non-consensual 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 16 See Thomas Hammarberg, “Inhuman treatment of persons with disabilities in institutions”, Human Rights Comment (2010). See Dorottya Karsay and Oliver Lewis, “Disability, torture and ill-treatment: taking stock and ending abuses”, The International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 16, No. 6 (2012), pp. 816-830. See also CRPD/C/HUN/CO/1, paras. 27-28. See CRPD/C/CHN/CO/1 and Corr.1, paras. 92-93. See Peter Bartlett, “A mental disorder of a kind or degree warranting confinement: examining justifications for psychiatric detention, The International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 16, No. 6 (2012), pp. 831-844. See ECHR, Winterwerp v. The Netherlands, Application No. 6301/73 (1979) and ECHR, E v. Norway, Application No. 11701/85 (1990). See Bartlett, “A mental disorder”. Stop Torture in Healthcare, “Torture and ill-treatment of people with disabilities in healthcare settings”, Campaign Briefing, 2012. See CAT/C/JPN/CO/1, para. 26.