The Issue

This petiton is about your right to make decisions about your own body and treatment — even during mental health challenges.

• This petition does not oppose medication.
• It supports your right to choose it freely.                                       
• It does not criminalize doctors.
• It is about legal capacity and consent, not anti-psychiatry.               
• It supports voluntary care.
• It promotes advance directives (which many responsible patients would welcome).

If you voluntarily take psychiatric medication and it helps you, this petition supports your right to continue doing so — with full legal protection of your autonomy.

Did you know that under current South African law, a person diagnosed with a mental health condition can be:

• Hospitalised without consent;
• Given treatment against their will;
• Declared unable to make their own decisions;
• Deprived of their full legal capacity;

This does not only apply to people with intellectual disabilities or severe mental illnesses.
The law applyes to anyone diagnosed with a mental health condition –  including people experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, burnout, temporary stress-related conditions, postpartum depression, etc.

South Africa signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007. That Convention says people with disabilities — including psychosocial disabilities, light or severe or anyone diagnosed with a mental health condition — have the right to:

✔ Make their own decisions;
✔ Refuse treatment (this is part of what is known as “Informed Consent” which includes: being fully informed about all side effects of medications; being informed about alternatives to medications, and being able to exercise the right to refuse treatment); 
✔ Receive support instead of being replaced in decision-making;
✔ Be free from discrimination;

But our Mental Health Care Act has not yet been updated to fully reflect those rights.

Therefore, this petition seeks to align South African law with constitutional and international human rights standards.

Mental health care should be compassionate — and rights-respecting.

This is about autonomy.
This is about equality.
This is about protecting everyone’s rights.