MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

Decisions

CM/Del/Dec(2021)1419/H46-12

2 December 2021

1419th meeting, 30 November – 2 December 2021 (DH)   H46-12 X v. Finland (Application No. 34806/04) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments   Reference document CM/Notes/1419/H46-12

 

Decisions

The Deputies

 

1.         recalled that this case concerns the extension of the applicant’s involuntary confinement in a psychiatric hospital and the forcible administration of medication, without adequate legal safeguards;

2.         noted that no further individual measures are required in this case, as the applicant is no longer subject to involuntary confinement;

 

3.         welcomed the information that, following legislative amendments to the Mental Health Act of 2014, patients now have a right to request a second independent opinion before involuntary confinement is extended and to initiate themselves an appeal against the extension of involuntary confinement; noted that these amendments appear to have addressed the main deficiencies in the legal framework criticised by the European Court;

4.         in this context, encouraged the authorities to provide their analysis as to whether vulnerable patients are in practice capable of benefiting from the possibility to request a second independent opinion before the extension of involuntary confinement, together with statistical information on the frequency at which second independent opinions are being prepared; also encouraged them to provide their assessment on the need to take any further steps to ensure that in practice judicial review is always timely, thorough and allows patients to be heard, so as to constitute a meaningful safeguard against arbitrariness;

 

5.         as regards decisions on forcible administration of medication, noted with concern that more than nine years after the judgment in this case became final, they still rest solely with doctors treating the patient and are not subject to judicial review; called upon the authorities to adopt without further delay the necessary legislative measures to introduce procedures for judicial review of such decisions, before the end of the term of office of the current parliament, to avoid additional delay in the execution process; 

 

6.         in view of the complexity of the measures expected to address the lack of judicial review of forcible administration of medication, revealed by the longstanding character of this problem and its potential scale, decided to pursue the examination of this case under the enhanced procedure; invited the authorities to provide information on the issues identified above by 30 March 2022.