Citizens Group Demands an End to Psychiatric Abuse

Citizens Commission on Human Rights protests psychiatric brutality and crime at a protest march and rally June 10 in Paris.

The sound of drums and angry voices chanting in unison June 10 signaled a march through the center of Paris. Protesters demanded an end to barbaric treatment, the drugging of children and the involuntary commitment of patients in French psychiatric institutions. Some 200 human rights advocates from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) bore banners and signs demanding an end to psychiatric abuse.

Known as CCDH in France (Commission des Citoyens pour les Droits de l'Homme) the group is a voice for those whose voices have been silenced—victims held against their will and deprived of their rights in facilities throughout the country.

CCHR’s demands echoed the message of U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Dainius Puras. On submitting his June 6 report to the UN Human Rights Council, Dr. Puras called for “a revolution in mental health care to end decades of neglect, abuse and violence.”

He went on to say, “There is now unequivocal evidence of the failures of a system that relies too heavily on the biomedical model of mental health services, including the front-line and excessive use of psychotropic medicines, and yet these models persist.”

Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry and Lifetime Fellow of the APA. CCHR is a mental health industry watchdog that has obtained over 182 laws that protect individuals against psychiatric abuse.