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2025 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Mary Rogan | Human Rights and Dignity in Forensic Mental Health
The concept of human dignity has an obvious relevance for forensic mental health services. However, while the term has been extensively in research, policy, and evaluation, its meaning and content remain contested and uncertain. The European Court of Human Rights has examined the role of dignity in forensic mental health settings in a series of cases exploring, in particular, the appplication of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights' prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment. The circumstances in which this article has application requires further exploration and synthesis. This paper will examine how the European Court of Human Rights has analysed key issues concerning treatment and conditions in forensic mental health settings, along with an assessment of what dignity means in these environments. It will also explore emerging questions in the area of dignity and the application of Article 3 regarding involuntary detention and the perspective of the patient, and potential future directions in human rights protections in forensic mental health services.
.jpg) | Mary Rogan, PhD, is a Professor in Law and Fellow at the School of Law, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. She is the Principal Investigator of two projects funded by the European Research Council examining prison oversight and human rights in detention. Mary previously practised as barrister in Dublin, Ireland and is a member of Lincoln’s Inn, London, UK. She is a former Chairperson of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. Mary was the first woman to be President of the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation and is currently its Secretary General. Professor Rogan is committed to using research to improve penal policy and the policymaking process. She chairs the Implementation and Oversight Group on reforms to penal policy, reporting to the Minister for Justice and Equality. She was appointed to the inaugural Research Advisory Group for the Department of Justice and Equality in July 2018. She sits on the Advisory Group to the Office of the Inspector of Prisons. She has also been a member of the Central Statistics Office's Expert Group on Crime Statistics. She is a former member of the Board of the Irish Association for the Social Integration of Offenders, the Victims' Rights Alliance, and is a former Chairperson of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. |
Prof. Anne Crocker |Looking back and shaping tomorrow: 50 years of forensic mental health research
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services (IAFMHS), it is an opportune time to reflect on the journey that has shaped our field. Over the past half-century, advancements in research, policy, and practice have helped to build a deeper understanding of the intersection between mental health and the justice system. This milestone offers an opportunity to look back and critically examine the legacy of past research – one that has provided both a foundation to build upon and, at times, shifting ground that complicates progress, particularly for historically marginalized groups – while also considering the evolving challenges we face. As society continues to change through shifts in cultural, social, and legal landscapes, it is crucial that we examine emerging issues. This includes the impact of new technologies, changing societal attitudes toward mental health, escalating misinformation and the increasing complexity of forensic populations Future directions for forensic mental health research should address family involvement, recognizing the critical role families play in supporting recovery and rehabilitation but also their support needs. Additionally, as systems face increasing strain, there is a need to foster resilience and adaptability within mental health services, ensuring they can respond effectively to both individual and systemic challenges.
The IAFMHS community is well positioned to lead these discussions and innovations, driving forward research and practices that not only address today's issues but also prepare us for the evolving needs of tomorrow.
| Anne Crocker, PhD, Canada Research Chair in Mental Health, Justice and Safety is Full professor at the department of psychiatry & addictions and at the School of criminology of the Université de Montréal, Director of Research and Academics at the Philippe-Pinel Institute, Guest professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and past-president of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the Université de Montréal and a post-doctoral degree in mental health services from Dartmouth Medical School, New Hampshire, U.S.A. She sits on many forensic mental health policy advisory committees. Professor Crocker’s research program focuses on circumscribing issues and specific needs related to mentally ill individuals’ interactions with the justice system; characterizing their use of services; analyzing the effects of legislative mechanisms related to the access to, organization and delivery of services; and documenting the barriers and facilitators of post-criminalisation community integration. Over the past 15 years, Professor Crocker has been leading the Canadian National Trajectory Project of individuals found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder. |
Mr. Justice Peter Charleton| A Personal View of Homicide While informed by criminological studies, this traverses unknown and unpublicised cases over a 27-year career as a barrister and seeks to identify patterns of conduct as to why people take to the “perfectly normal” crime of murder. The focus here is on what spirit drives people into what is indeed not a normal activity in the animal world, that of killing one’s own kind. This is not a study in criminology but, rather, a series of impressions which nonetheless are related to and found to be grounded in the ideas of those who have addressed the unnerving question of how both ordinary motivations like greed, crushing blows like disappointment in love and long simmering jealousy, either singly or in combination, drive the ever-mysterious human condition of hate. He cannot present answers, but rather questions if particular analyses can assist in understanding the negative drive of destructiveness. Some of these cases found their way into Lies in a Mirror, but in slightly altered and anonymous form out of respect for two sets of victims: those who lost a loved person and those families from whom killers sprang. Both suffer ultimate loss. |
| Mr. Justice Peter Charleton is a judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland since 2014 and joined the bench as a High Court judge in 2006. Prior to that, since 1979, he was a barrister in private practice with a wide-ranging practice. But, he was best known for taking on some of the most challenging criminal cases, principally as a prosecutor. These included the several cases arising out of the murder of Veronica Guerin in 1996, the journalist assassinated by the crime gang she was investigating, the Omagh bombing case from August 1998, the Mrs Nevin prosecution in 2000 and many others. Having spent a professional lifetime in and out of crime cases, his response to human nature’s revelation of its shadow was an attempt at catharsis in his 2006 book Lies in a Mirror: an essay on evil and deceit. He has also published many articles on legal issues, particularly associated with the Irish Judicial Studies Journal and in several others such as the Cambridge Law Journal and the Maastricht Journal of EU and Comparative Law, and on history. He is, with his friend the late Paul Anthony McDermott, the author of Charleton & McDermott’s Criminal Law and Evidence, which is the standard Irish text on criminal law. Adjunct professor of criminal law and criminology at the University of Galway, he regularly lectures there and for various groups. |
