The Mental Health Convention in Slovenia Brings Forward Important Issues

Author: Ana MC Budeanu

June 3, 2026

HRRC endorses the World Health Organization’s efforts to establish a rights-based approach to mental health services and abolish the use of coercion. Further, we call for greater support for people who have been subjected to coercive mental health services or interventions.

Can Mental Health Services be offered without Coercion? [Image credit: Unsplash]

The World Health Organization Europe (WHO/Europe) is holding a mental health convention in Slovenia, Europe, on May 27-28, where coercion in mental health services shall be the most important topic.

The conference is heavily supported by two major European Commission-funded financial agreements: “Addressing mental health challenges in the EU, Iceland and Norway” (funded via the EU's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, DG-SANTE) and “Support for health resilience in the Eastern Partnership” (targeting neighboring Eastern European countries). 

The majority of the attendees will be participants from the WHO QualityRights training on reducing coercion in mental health services and strengthening recovery-related care. These trainings are necessary since in target countries, mental health issues have an attached stigma, and people with these problems face harmful treatment practices, neglect, and abuse. Many times, people with mental illnesses are detained against their will and receive treatment without informed consent.

The WHO Europe was forced to shut down QualityRights Initiative due to financial and structural complexities it faced at organizational level, thus leaving many without the support they previously had in dealing with coercion in mental health services. 

The European Disability Forum, the European Network of (ex)-Users of Psychiatry, Mental Health Europe, the Brain Injured & Families European Confederation and the International Disability Alliance have issued a public statement denouncing the closure of the QualityRights Initiative as the resources provided have been extremely important in removing coercive and rights-restrictive practices and moving mental health services toward an approach based on autonomy, recovery and inclusion, by placing human rights at the centre of mental health policy and practice and supporting an holistic understanding of mental health.

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Glossary

• Coercion - the act or process of persuading someone forcefully to do something that they do not want to do

• Inclusion - the act of making a person or thing part of a group or collection.

• Informed Consent - consent, normally written, to surgery, experimental treatment, etc., given by a patient after having been informed of the potential medical risks

• Mental Health - the general condition of a person's mind

• Mental Issues - any of a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause marked distress or disability and that are typically associated with a disruption in normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning

• Recovery - the process of combating a disorder or a real or perceived problem

• Stigma - a set of negative and unfair beliefs that a society or group of people has about something

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References

1. https://www.who.int/europe/news-room/events/item/2026/05/27/default-calendar/qualityrights-conference--building-a-community-of-practice-to-reduce-coercion-in-mental-health-services#:~:text=WHO%2FEurope%20is%20convening%20partners,on%2027%E2%80%9328%20May%202026 

2. https://www.mentalhealtheurope.org/open-letter-to-who-denouncing-the-dismantling-of-the-qualityrights-initiative-a-critical-setback-for-rights-based-mental-health/#:~:text=The%20WHO%20QualityRights%20Initiative%20provided,of%20persons%20with%20psychosocial%20disabilities