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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of audit committee (AC) characteristics (size, independence, the number of meetings and expertise) on compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for related party disclosures (CRPD) in the South African context.

This paper is based on an analysis of the consolidated financial statements of 120 non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) for the period 2012 to 2014. Panel regressions have been used.

The findings of this paper reveal that CRPD is positively influenced by AC independence. However, AC size and the number of AC meetings do not affect CRPD. Regarding expertise, the authors find that there is a positive and significant relationship between CRPD and have combined industry expertise with accounting and financial expertise. However, while accounting expertise by itself is associated with CPRD, industry expertise by itself is not associated with CRPD.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no empirical studies that have addressed the effect of AC characteristics on compliance with IFRS for CRPD.

This article describes and clarifies the human rights of persons with disabilities in the context of detention in light of the recently adopted and already in force Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention). Focusing on the Convention, the article sheds light on the legality of certain forms of detention affecting persons with disabilities, the substantive and procedural requirements for their detention, and on their rights in relation to conditions of detention. This article also provides an account of the different treatments and practices inflicted on persons with disabilities in prisons and other institutions and assesses whether they constitute torture and ill treatment. The authors argue that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities represents a paradigm shift that requires States to modify and adopt laws, policies and practices that fully respect the right to liberty of persons with disabilities, and their equal enjoyment of rights while in detention, including the right to be free from torture and ill treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to consider surgical robotics, with a focus on technology and design issues for remote‐mode operation assistance. The investigation leads to the definition of the technical characteristics of a co‐robotic positioning device (CRPD), to be developed in support of a split‐duty approach to planning. The expected characteristics and advantages are outlined, including the operation potential of special‐purpose devices (e.g. an automatic changer for surgical tools) and of scope‐driven enhancers (e.g. the exploration of the intervention theatre).

The paper addresses example developments based on projects performed with the co‐operation of other robot laboratories in Munich and Paris. The CRPD concept is applied in relation to the DLR KineMedic^® arm (developed by the Munich laboratory), and with the LRP prototype mini‐arm (built by the Paris laboratory).

Minimally‐invasive surgery deserves increasing attention to reduce post‐operative hospital stays and to reduce complications. This leads to new trends in robotics, to facilitate safe, fast and accurate remote manipulation, and integrated computer‐aided implements. The features of the example CRPD design are summarised for the two cases.

The overall comments consider minimally‐invasive robotic surgery as a given intervention practice in the near future, and the split‐duty approach, supported by the CRPD technology, as a valuable aid for human‐robot co‐operation, according to the “best‐of‐skills” idea, supporting intervention under the surgeon's control.

This investigation shows new results aimed at expanding the operation versatility of robotics with integrated intelligence, to enhance scope‐driven alternatives and out‐of‐reach handling with improved dexterity and safe autonomic processing.

There is no documented evidence on service users’ perceptions of quality of care and observance of human rights in mental health residential facilities in Egypt after the new mental health law passed in 2009. The purpose of this paper is to investigate El-Abbassia Mental Health Hospital in Cairo. Special attention is paid as to the variety of human rights violations which are experienced by the users and the context in which these violations occur.

A cross-sectional study was performed relying on 36 depth interviews with patients, 58 staff members and 15 family members, reviews of documents and observations by an independent assessment team consisting of the author, another psychiatrist, a nurse and a family member using the World Health Organization Quality Rights Tool Kit which uses the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as its framework.

The study reported empirical insights into how the steps taken by the hospital to address several of the themes drawn from the CRPD require either improvement or initiation to comply fully with the convention’s themes.

Respondents may have failed to disclose their true experiences due to fear of punishment.

Users admitted to mental hospitals have often been forgotten, thus becoming victims of violence, neglect and other human rights violations.

An opportunity to promote public awareness of the rights of patients.

The importance of this study came from being the first documented evidence on service users’ perceptions of quality of care and observance of human rights in mental health residential facilities in Egypt after the new mental health law passed in 2009.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Intellectual disability in Switzerland: the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as a vehicle for progress”.

This commentary highlights the importance of including people with intellectual disabilities in human rights reporting. The commentary builds on available data from academic research as well as civil society reports.

Three main aspects are presented: the lack of involvement of people with intellectual disabilities in human rights reporting, the barriers to their participation in developing and publishing human rights reports and possible strategies to tackle those barriers.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities (CRPD) makes it mandatory to include people with intellectual disabilities in policy-making as well as in monitoring the CRPD. Academics need to change their practice to include people with intellectual disabilities in human rights research.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality of healthcare offered by a Greek Public Psychiatric Clinic. Special attention is paid to the degree to which the Clinic promotes human rights, social inclusion, and autonomy.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using the open-ended approach of grounded theory, including 21 depth interviews with patients, staff members and patients’ relatives, documentation review and observation by an independent assessment team consisting of the author, a sociologist with mental disabilities, and a psychologist using the World Health Organization QualityRights tool kit which uses the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as its frame. The data complemented by a group discussion with employees in another Clinic of the same hospital.

The paper provides empirical insights about how the steps taken by the Psychiatric Clinic to address several of the themes drawn from the CRPD require either improvement or initiation to comply fully with the convention's themes, and how this compares unfavorably with the Urology Clinic.

Sample size and restriction of the data to only one mental health facility limit the generalizibility of the results. Staff who reported professional burnout and cuts in wages may have been be susceptible to recall bias due to current negative mood. Respondent patients may also have failed to disclose their true experiences due to fear of punishment.

The paper uses a new methodology and instrument to assess current practice in mental health facilities in relation to international human rights standards emanating from the CRPD as well as the degree of parity between mental health and general health services.

This research aims to discuss the key civil rights problems in mental well-being and the solutions to those challenges in standard-setting and institutional practice, as well as proposes an integrated approach to adapting the emerging principles of practice to divisive mental health concerns.

This study is based on review of literature focused on mental health and human rights with special reference to international standards and clinical practices. Recent articles related to mental health and human rights and mechanisms suggested by United nations were included to draw conclusion.

Review of literature suggested to switch from reactive to a constructive and pragmatic approach, which is community-based, emphasizing alliance, rather than action, when the client is still too damaged to agree. Treatment should go hand in hand with mental health and civil rights education in the neighbourhood, as well as opportunities for engagement in shared interests in the group and interaction of other individuals with living experience.

While consent to care is a vital issue for human rights, the view of individuals with psychiatric illnesses as dangerous and “out of reach” is perpetuated by a disproportionate emphasis on it. Treatment should go hand in hand with mental health and civil rights education in the neighbourhood, as well as opportunities for engagement in shared interests in the group and interaction of other individuals with living experience.

The purpose of this paper – written by a practising barrister specialising in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – is to survey law and practice in England and Wales with a view to sketch out a preliminary answer as to whether it can be said there is, in fact, any legally defensible concept of mental capacity.

Review of case-law in England and Wales and relevant domestic and international law, in particular the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”).

It is right, and inescapable, to say that mental capacity is in the eye of the beholder, and will remain so even if we seek to recast our legislative provisions. Rather – and perhaps ironically – the conclusion set out above means that we need to look less at the person being assessed, and more at the person doing the assessing. We also need to further look at the process of assessment so as to ensure that those who are required to carry it out are self-aware and acutely alive to the values and pre-conceptions that they may be bringing to the situation.

It seems to me that it is right, and inescapable, to say that mental capacity is in the eye of the beholder, and will remain so even if we seek to recast our legislative provisions. Absent major developments in neuroscience, it will inescapably remain a concept which requires judgments based on interactions between the assessor and the assessed. But that is not thereby to say that it is an irremediably relative and flawed concept upon which we cannot place any weight. Rather the conclusion set out above means that we need to look less at the person being assessed, and more at the person doing the assessing. We also need further to look at the process of assessment so as to ensure that those who are required to carry it out are self-aware and acutely alive to the values and pre-conceptions that they may be bringing to the situation.

This paper serves as a reflection on the best part of a decade spent grappling with the MCA 2005 in and out of the court room, a decade increasingly informed by and challenged by the requirements of the CRPD.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on the paper titled “The Zone of Parental Control, The ‘Gilded Cage’ and The Deprivation of a Child’s Liberty: Getting Around Article 5”.

This paper uses the original article as a jumping off point to assess what aids advocacy organisations and human rights instruments can give to children with learning disabilities who enter legal procedures.

Existing human rights laws such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provide innovative principles to reviewing existing policies, but little practical guidance is given to real implementation. Disability advocacy is ambiguous towards the question of representation of children with learning disabilities.

Literature on self-advocacy and especially on the self-advocacy and self-representation of children with learning disabilities is very limited. Access to justice for children with learning disabilities is similarly under-researched and is rarely addressed in disability advocacy.