28/01/2026 Session
PACE has unanimously said it is against a new draft protocol on the involuntary placement and involuntary treatment of persons in mental healthcare services, pointing out it would “make it more difficult to abolish coercive practices” in such settings.
The Assembly had been asked by the organisation’s executive body, the Committee of Ministers, to give an opinion on the draft protocol prepared by intergovernmental experts.
Approving an opinion based on a report by Carmen Leyte (Spain, EPP/CD), the Assembly recognised the need to provide a framework for “exceptional, last-resort measures” to treat persons in this situation.
However, it invited the Committee of Ministers to “consider proceeding by means of a more flexible instrument than a protocol, for example a recommendation. Such a recommendation should be fully in alignment with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, its general comments and guidelines."
The UN text has already been ratified by all Council of Europe member states and embodies a “paradigm shift” towards respect for the autonomy of persons in this situation, the parliamentarians pointed out.