As part of the “Support for health resilience in the Eastern Partnership” programme, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST), WHO/Europe will conduct a WHO QualityRights training workshop in Yerevan, Armenia, on 17–19 September 2025 on human rights, recovery and coercion-free mental health care.
Participants will include mental health professionals, service managers, representatives of associations, people with lived experience, and other key stakeholders from Armenia, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.
Why a training on QualityRights?
In many countries, people with mental health conditions and psychosocial, intellectual or cognitive disabilities face stigma, harmful treatment practices, neglect and abuse. Too often, they are detained against their will, treated without consent, and excluded from opportunities to live independently, access education or participate fully in community life.
The WHO QualityRights initiative addresses these challenges by promoting a shift in mental health care, one that is grounded in human rights and recovery. Recovery is not only about clinical improvement, but about supporting people to live meaningful lives, with autonomy, purpose and connection.
This 3-day training will introduce participants to the principles of WHO’s QualityRights initiative:
- promoting a new approach to mental health care that is rights-based and recovery-oriented;
- supporting services to move away from coercion and institutionalization, and towards community-based, person-centred care;
- building capacity to combat stigma, discrimination and social exclusion in mental health; and
- empowering people with lived experience to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives.
This training will help participants understand how to create environments and services that foster recovery, uphold rights and eliminate coercive practices. It will also support countries in aligning their mental health systems with the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Background
Within the framework of the DG ENEST collaboration “Support for health resilience in the Eastern Partnership”, WHO/Europe is supporting countries in building the skills and capacities of the health and care workforce, enabling them to expand access to quality, rights-based mental health care, and support service transformation across the region.