Landmark Vote Affirms Coercive Practices Violate Human Rights
| In a landmark unanimous decision, a key body of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading organization that sets human rights standards, rejected a proposed psychiatric measure that, if approved, would have expanded and legitimized involuntary psychiatric detention and forced treatment across Europe. This could have had global repercussions had it not been stopped. This historic outcome followed years of sustained work by CCHR International, working closely with its European chapters, on a coordinated campaign to expose the dangers of the proposal. That campaign reached a critical point last year when it appeared that an amendment to increase coercive psychiatric practices would be approved. This was despite widespread opposition from United Nations human rights and anti-torture bodies, as well as disability and advocacy organizations. CCHR International helped create reports explaining how forced psychiatric practices violate basic rights and cause long-term harm, which were shared with lawmakers and raised awareness of the proposed amendment. |
| The Council of Europe rejection sends a powerful message: coercive psychiatric practices are incompatible with human rights; involuntary detention and forced treatment are not “necessary” or protective. As the rejection conveyed, coercion must not be normalized and can never be used to justify deprivation of liberty or bodily autonomy. The committee is now working on a plan to end coercive practices. A similar stand is urgently needed in the United States, where there are psychiatric efforts to expand coercive psychiatric policies. With your continued support, CCHR International can keep advancing our campaign to protect human rights and dignity in the mental health field, by abolishing coercive psychiatric practices. |
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