SOCIAL
REFORM
Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)
|
 |
Through the efforts of CCHR chapters, such as the one in Australia, the violation of human rights of psychiatrists is brought to a halt.
|
A 10-year CCHR probe of the Chelmsford psychiatric hospital in Sydney, Australia, revealed that scores of patients had died due to “deep sleep” – a drug-induced comatose state during which electric shock was administered. After a Royal Commission enquiry, sweeping reforms of Australia’s psychiatric industry came about, including a ban on deep sleep “therapy.”
In Italy, several mental institutions described by media as “worse than concentration camps where patients lived no better than animals” have been shut down due to CCHR’s efforts. And in the United States, CCHR has contributed to legislation criminalizing psychiatric rape in more than a dozen states.
In the 30 years since it began, CCHR has become recognized as a relentless and effective foe of psychiatric barbarism in many countries, successfully exposing psychiatric abuses and pressing for reforms.
A United Nations report issued in 1986 on the subject of the human rights of mental patients stated, “CCHR has been responsible for many great reforms. At least 30 bills throughout the world, which would otherwise have inhibited even more the rights of mental patients, or would have given psychiatry the power to commit minority groups and individuals against their will, have been defeated by CCHR actions.”
Due to CCHR’s efforts, the United Nations finally adopted a universal bill of rights for mental patients in December 1991. It called on all nations to restore human rights “through appropriate legislative, judicial, administrative, education and other measures.”
While this was a major step forward, CCHR will continue to ensure that justice takes place wherever violations of these basic human rights occur.
|
