Human Rights Group Demands an End to Psychiatry's Abuse of the Vulnerable

Human Rights advocates from across Europe converge in Paris at the Palais des Congrès to protest human rights violations perpetrated by psychiatrists.

End psychiatry’s human rights abuse. This was the message blaring from loudspeakers March 28 as hundreds of advocates from Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) marched from Parc Monceau to the Palais des Congrès in Paris. There, they confronted psychiatrists attending the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry. And their demands were clear:

• End involuntary commitment. 
• Stop drugging our children. 
• Cease all forms of coercive psychiatry. 

CCHR members from the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy joined their colleagues in France to demand that the European Congress of Psychiatry comply with the UN’s directions that they end all “coercive mental health measures.”

The UN Office on Human Rights published a statement in May 2021 asserting “an approach to mental health policy and practice that is based on coercion… is incompatible with contemporary human rights principles and standards.” 

UN human rights experts further stated:

“Overwhelming evidence from the European Disability Forum, Mental Health Europe and other organizations and growing consensus within the United Nations including at the World Health Organization, show that forced admission to medical institutions and coercive treatments in institutions will bring harmful effects such as pain, trauma, humiliation, shame, stigmatization and fear to people with psychosocial disabilities.” 

Yet two years on, these practices continue unchecked.

These human rights advocates demand that European psychiatrists immediately cease all coercive activities in the field of mental health.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights was cofounded in 1969 by professor of psychiatry Dr. Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology. With headquarters in Los Angeles, California, CCHR International guides a global human rights advocacy network of some 180 chapters across more than 30 nations. CCHR Commissioners include physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, lawyers, legislators, government officials, educators and civil rights representatives.

CCHR France and its president Mylène Escudier are featured in an episode of the Scientology Network original series, Voices for Humanity. 

Available on DIRECTV Channel 320, DIRECTV STREAM, and AT&T U-verse, it can also be streamed at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms. Since launching with a special episode featuring Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige, Scientology Network has been viewed in 240 countries and territories worldwide in 17 languages. 

The Scientology Network premiered its new season Monday, April 10.