Pristina, 30 September 2021 – The National Preventive Mechanism of Torture in cooperation with the Council of Europe held the second day of the roundtable on “Involuntary treatment with detention of persons with mental disorders and implementation of the Law on Mental Health”. The purpose of this roundtable was to achieve inter-institutional coordination in the management of these cases.

The second day was attended by representatives from the judiciary, prosecution, police and mental health institutions. Many challenges are presented faced by Mental health professionals in involuntary treatment with prohibition of cases with chronic psychiatric disorders.

They said that there is a lack of capacity of Mental health institutions, emphasizing that the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry has only 24 beds for involuntary treatment with detention and that they are currently at full capacity. Another challenge is the numerous requests for psychiatric evaluations, the waiting list for hospitalization of cases with mental disorders who have committed criminal offenses, and who continue to stay in correctional institutions.

The Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj said that since the entry into force of the Law on Mental Health in 2015, no bylaws have been issued that would regulate many issues, especially the involuntary placement and treatment of cases with mental health problems. The Mr. Qelaj pledged to be a strong voice in the Assembly of Kosovo to address the challenges and problems for fulfilling the duties from the positions held by all representatives of the institutions.

The judiciary also agreed that the problem is the lack of capacity in mental health institutions and it was discussed that their every decision is based on medical expertise. It was also emphasized that the lack of capacities is a problem of institutions such as the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health.

Also mentioned are the findings of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which have highlighted in the report on Kosovo, as well as the findings of the NPM which for years have been addressed to the competent institutions.