5. The Law on mental health has not yet been passed

The legal vacuums in the detention and treatment of patients with mental disorders and the inadequate legislation governing legal supervision of this sensitive area of human privacy and personal rights are not appropriate for a country governed by the rule of law. The preparation of a draft law with the working title ‘law on mental health’ was announced by the ministry as far back as 1995, but work on the preparation of this draft law clearly later dragged to a standstill. In 1998 a special group at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, led by Dr Dragica Wedam-Lukič, was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to prepare the text of a law on mental health, while Mr Borut Pahor MP placed in parliamentary procedure a draft law on patient advocacy and the protection of rights in the area of mental health.

Because of inadequate legal regulation of this area and the inadequate protection of the rights that are limited in the case of non-voluntary hospitalisation or detention, it is vital that the Ministry of Health should do more towards the passing of a law to regulate this area in its entirety as quickly as possible. The law on mental health must take into account European standards of ethics in health care and the humanity and democracy of services, while respecting the principles which guarantee the fundamental rights of the individual.

We propose the preparation, reading, and passing of a law regulating the issues dealt with in this report as soon as