Geneva, 26th April: The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) expressed serious concerns on the continued use of neurosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy and prolonged isolation in cells without basic services in Chile. It went on state how ‘Chile must explicitly end and prohibit the use of these and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of persons with psychosocial disabilities interned for health or legal reasons’.
The informative platform Panorama reported how after close examination of the Chilean State on the 31st of March and the 1st of April in Geneva, the Committee called on Chilean authorities to investigate cases of physical maltreatment ‘by police and other security forces’ and to establish adequate administrative and legal responsibilities to address these. The Committee insisted that Chile must guarantee full right to recognition of the legal personality of adults with a disability.
The Committee expressed how ‘Chile should promote persons with disabilities as subjects of rights and not as objects of charity’.
In addition, the experts forming part of the UN Committee demanded that Chile sets up a national mechanism for the prevention of torture that would include supervised visits by international experts in psychiatric wards and long stay hostels for persons with disabilities.
While these are all the recommendations made to Chile by the Committee, experts went on highlight how Chile needs to update its legislation, including the Constitution and the Civil Code to ensure that these are aligned and compatible with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Chile in 2008.
These provisions would ensure that pejorative terms such as ‘invalid’, ‘handicapped’ or ‘demented’ to refer to persons with disabilities are excluded from existing legal instruments such as the Civil Code or the Law on Equality and Social Inclusion.
Other recommendations formulated by the Committee included the prohibition of forced institutionalisation of persons with disabilities, access to information and sexual and reproductive health, and universal disability benefits.
The Committee insisted that Chile must guarantee full right to recognition of the legal personality of adults with a disability.
The Committee concluded by calling on the state to repeal any legal provisions that limit the legal personality of adults with a disability and to guarantee that they are able to participate in elections, get married, or exercise their right to parenthood equally as any other citizen. Informed consent, it reiterated must be an indispensable prerequisite to administer any form of medical intervention.
Chile now has a year during which time it must inform the Committee of specific measures put in place to prevent torture of persons with disabilities. In 2022, it must then present its own report on progress in implementing the recommendations by the Committee and the provisions of the UN Convention.
See the original Panorama article for version in Spanish
