Oliver Lewis

University of Leeds, School of Law/ Criminal Justice, Faculty Member

Central European University, Legal Studies, Faculty Member

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International human rights lawyer
Address: School of Law
The Liberty Building
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UK

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Bill Bowring

Birkbeck College, University of London

Mariya Ivancheva

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

Jackie Dugard

Columbia University

Thom Brooks

Durham University

Don Ross

University College Cork

Remo Caponi

University of Cologne

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Martin O'Neill

University of York

Noe Cornago

University of the Basque Country, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

Darius Whelan

University College Cork

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Papers by Oliver Lewis

Chapter 7. Participation in Society

Brill | Nijhoff eBooks, 2007

This chapter examines a diverse range of rights which are essential for a people to be recognised... more This chapter examines a diverse range of rights which are essential for a people to be recognised as members of and participants in broader civil society. The barriers to these rights stem from the same stereotypes about people with mental health problems or intellectual disabilities: that such people cannot make rational choices; that they are dangerous and unpredictable; and that as children they are uneducable. The issue confronting policymakers and the European Court is whether we understand people with mental disabilities as an integral part of our society. The chapter suggests the range of human rights consequences of being diagnosed with an intellectual disability or a mental health problem. The areas covered in the chapter are the right to community integration, right to education, right to property, right to vote, right to marry and found a family, right to associate, and right to work.Keywords: civil society; community integration; family life; right to associate; right to education; right to property; right to work; voting rights

The Right to Participation of People with Mental Disabilities in Legal and Policy Reforms

Mental Health and Human Rights, 2012

Human rights aspects of deaths of institutionalized people with disabilities in Europe

Disabled People and the Right to Life looks at disabled people's right to life in its wider sense... more Disabled People and the Right to Life looks at disabled people's right to life in its wider sense, discussing the right to a life that is not intolerable, a life worth living. This volume uses a human rights perspective to explore debates and challenges around what this means for disabled people. Human rights has increasingly come to be seen as a significant framework both to aid understanding of the experiences of those who face oppression and to underpin social, legal and political measures to counter it. The most fundamental of human rights is the right to life-a right which is enshrined in international treaties and covenants as well as in domestic law in many countries, but which cannot be taken for granted by disabled people. With perspectives from both developed and developing countries, the book chronicles attitudes and practices, critically analyses changes and explores the extent to which such changes have been driven by social as well as legal developments. Chapters explore issues such as: • cost-effectiveness analysis and preferences • disability rights and resuscitation • assisted dying versus assisted living • access to care • the selective non-treatment of disabled babies and young children. The distinguished panel of contributors includes academics, practitioners, public officials and activists. This truly interdisciplinary book will be of interest to students and researchers of disability, law, social policy and human rights.

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Stanev v. Bulgaria: On the Pathway to Freedom

Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Jul 25, 2012

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Violence and abuse against people with disabilities: A comparison of the approaches of the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Jul 1, 2017

Political changes in Tunisia an opportunity for disability rights, says Committee T he Committee ... more Political changes in Tunisia an opportunity for disability rights, says Committee T he Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Committee) met for its 5 th session from 11 to 15 April, a meeting that marked a number of firsts. It was the first time the enlarged Committee, which has grown from 12 to 18 members, came together and engaged in dialogue with a State party-Tunisia-and adopted a set of Concluding Observations. The dialogue also took place during a period of significant political change for Tunisia, which the Committee in its Concluding Observations presented as a unique opportunity for persons with disability to have their rights further recognised and to contribute to the development of the country. Significant themes of the session included: definitions and terminology on persons with disabilities, legal capacity, and a focus on civil and political rights.

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Legal capacity in international human rights law

Preamble, 'Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last res... more

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The World Psychiatric Association’s “Bill of Rights”: A curious contribution to human rights

International Journal of Mental Health, Apr 20, 2017

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Monitoring human rights in mental health: the ITHACA toolkit

Psychiatrische Praxis, Apr 14, 2011

Background/Objectives: The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) Too... more Background/Objectives: The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) Toolkit has recently been developed by a consortium from across 15 EU countries, funded by the European Commission. The ITHACA Toolkit provides a clear and practical way to monitor human rights and general health care in mental health facilities.Methods: In developing the ITHACA Toolkit service users were consulted and employed at all stages. Over 100 service users\u2019 participated in the focus groups which were conducted in each country. A key component of this consultation was to build service user capacity and involvement.Results: The toolkit was designed by services users, human rights experts, psychiatrists, psychologists and social scientists. It has been successfully field tested in 87 sites across 15 countries, covering a wide range of mental health care settings and can identify both human rights violations and examples of good practice in protecting, respecting and fulfilling the rights of persons with mental disabilities.Discussion/Conclusions: The ITHACA Toolkit is closely based upon the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This lecture will present the development and the final version of the ITHACA Toolkit, which is now available in the following languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovak, and Turkish. For full details of the ITHACA Toolkit, please go to our website at www.ithaca-study.eu.Funding: European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Policy (DG SANCO)

Chapter 8. Procedure of the European Court of Human Rights

Brill | Nijhoff eBooks, 2007

This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapte... more This chapter elaborates on issues pertinent to applicants with mental disabilities. As the chapter explains, a case needs to have exhausted effective remedies available in the domestic legal system before applying to Strasbourg. In order to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the applicant must be a ‘victim’ as set out by Article 34 of the ECHR. The chapter discusses the main grounds for declaring a case inadmissible, and describes aspects related to the procedure of taking a case to the ECtHR. In cases concerning people with mental disabilities, there may often be information which is private in nature and which the applicant would not want the public to know about. In such cases, the applicant can request for anonymity or confidentiality to be ensured. The applicant is never at any risk of paying the respondent Government’s costs, even if the Court declares a case inadmissible.Keywords: admissibility; anonymity; confidentiality; domestic proceedings; ECHR; ECtHR; mental disabilities; victim status

Chapter 1. Introduction: the European Convention on Human Rights and Mental Disability

Brill | Nijhoff eBooks, 2007

Mental disability has come of age as a subject of concern under the European Convention on Human ... more Mental disability has come of age as a subject of concern under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Between 2000 and 2004, there were over 40 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) relating to mental disability or to detention in psychiatric and related facilities. In some areas, such as the law relating to detention of individuals with mental health difficulties, it is possible now to speak of a jurisprudence of the Court. The European Court has in recent years made considerable progress in the protection of the rights of people with mental disabilities, and as the core of the book shows, there is potential for a good deal more. This introductory chapter also outlines the content available in other chapters of the book.Keywords: ECtHR; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); mental disability

Chronic Illness

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jul 9, 2020

This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons w... more This chapter sets out the connection between disability and human rights, examining how persons with disabilities (including those with physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, psychosocial or mental health disabilities, and intellectual disabilities) are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination, leading to human rights violations across the world. It has been a long global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities and realize the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and social well-being, a struggle evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The provisions of the CRPD relate to three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living. Yet, national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disability in policymaking and developing models of service delivery that advance human rights.

Protecting the Rights of People with Mental Disabilities:The European Convention on Human Rights

European Journal of Health Law, 2002

This paper will analyse the essential legal requirements of the European Convention on Human Righ... more This paper will analyse the essential legal requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights which touch on the lives (and deaths) of people with mental disabilities. It will examine the procedural safeguards which must be followed when involuntarily detaining a person under mental health legislation; access to a court to test the lawfulness of detention; the requirement to be free from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence; and the right to life, including investigation after a death. The paper will discuss some of the factors which explain the relative scarcity of mental disability cases decided by the Strasbourg Court. In conclusion there will be an examination of the role of lawyers and other key players in mental disability, and how stakeholders can move forward to prompt much needed social reform.

Disabling legal barriers

In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash wit... more In dictatorships as well as democracies, throughout history and today too, the world is awash with laws that promulgate rather than penalise prejudice. This article is a reflection on 15 years of human rights litigation and advocacy focused on improving the lives of people with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities in Central and Eastern Europe. The article provides two examples of case-work— Shtukaturov and Stanev —which have had a wider impact than just the lives of the individual applicants and illustrates how creative lawyering can contribute to advancing social justice. The article offers a personal reflection about what it means to work alongside activists striving to give voice to people whom the law has rendered invalid. Like many other marginalised people, children and adults with labels of mental health issues or disabilities face abuse in everyday life, partly as a result of discrimination embedded in law. Normalisation of discrimination nudges the public to welcome segregation and ill-treatment rather than accept difference and celebrate diversity.

Chapter 2. Admission to and Discharge from Psychiatricand Related Institutions

Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007

This chapter analyses admission to and discharge (release) from psychiatric institutions. It is p... more This chapter analyses admission to and discharge (release) from psychiatric institutions. It is principally concerned with the terms of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its associated case law. This is the area that has attracted the most cases taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) relating to mental disability. The general right to liberty under Article 5(1) is subject to a variety of exceptions. These exceptions are subject to an overriding requirement that they be ‘in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law’. In Winterwerp v. the Netherlands case, the ECtHR held that the validity of continued confinement depends upon the persistence of a disorder of the required severity. As discussed in the chapter, there has been further elaboration regarding these conditions in the context of release.Keywords: ECtHR; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); legal confinement; mental disability; psychiatric institutions; Winterwerp v. the Netherlands case

Development of the ITHACA Toolkit for monitoring human rights and general health care in psychiatric and social care institutions

Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 2012

Background.Human rights violations are commonly experienced by people in psychiatric and social c... more Background.Human rights violations are commonly experienced by people in psychiatric and social care institutions. States and private organizations providing such health and social services must comply with international human rights law. Monitoring of such compliance is increasingly recognized as a vital component in ensuring that rights are respected and violations are brought out in the open, remedied and prevented.Aims.The Institutional Treatment, Human Rights and Care Assessment (ITHACA) project produced a method to document violations and good practice with the aim of preventing human rights violations and improving general health care practice in psychiatric and social care institutions (www.ithacastudy.eu).Methods.A methodological and implementation study conducted across 15 European countries developed and assessed the ITHACA Toolkit in monitoring visits to 87 mental health organizations.Results.The toolkit is available in 13 European languages and has demonstrated applicab...

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Chapter 8. Procedure of the European Court of Human Rights

Mental Disability and the European Convention on Human Rights, 2007

Chronic Illness

Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights, 2020

Disabling legal barriers

Legal capacity in international human rights law

The book sets out an analysis of how the law is used as a means to remove decision-making rights ... more

Stanev v. Bulgaria: On the Pathway to Freedom

THE HUMAN RIGHTS BRIEF, 2012

In this article, I suggest that the January 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (... more In this article, I suggest that the January 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Stanev v. Bulgaria takes us a few steps along the path towards freedom. Rather like a Franz Kafka novel, the judgment is a story about an ordinary person who became entangled in a web of antiquated laws and perverse processes, and who ended up in a grotesque situation from which he found it impossible to extricate himself. Rusi Stanev, the applicant, is an extraordinarily tenacious man who faced State absurdity and abuse, and who risked retribution by putting Bulgaria in the dock at the ECtHR in Strasbourg, and won. His life and his case are unique, but his is the voice of millions of others’ that we will never hear. They are — like he was — locked away and silenced.

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Chapter 7. Participation in Society

Brill | Nijhoff eBooks, 2007