RoR’s post-doc Claire Hogg is collaborating with the Mental Diversity Law Network (MDLN) to run a series of online workshops on criminal law and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Here is a description of the series:
The Mental Diversity Law Network, in collaboration with Roots of Responsibility and the University of Greenwich, is organising a series of online workshops focusing on the relationship between the criminal law and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Over the course of six workshops, guest speakers from a range of backgrounds will be discussing the status of mental health-based defences such as legal “insanity” under the CRPD. Our aim is to facilitate a conversation between practitioners, researchers and those with lived experience within the fields of mental health, disability and criminal law, focusing on the following questions:
1. What does the CRPD demand of the criminal law with respect to mental condition defences like insanity and diminished responsibility?
2. What might CRPD compliance in this area look like in practice?
3. Is the approach required by the CRPD the best way to safeguard the rights of mentally diverse defendants in the context of criminal culpability determinations?
Registration is now open on this Eventbrite page for the first event in the series:
In this first workshop of the series, we will explore the current state of mental health-based defences in England and Wales. We will hear from John Child, professor of criminal law at Birmingham University, and Nick, a person with lived experience of forensic mental health services. John will discuss the law of “insanity” as it presently applies in England and Wales, while Nick will talk about his experiences across the forensic mental health system, describing how he felt treated by the law and what capacity meant to him at different moments.