LOS ANGELES - Marylandian -- By CCHR International

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has issued a powerful new Open Letter reiterating its opposition to the involuntary detention and treatment of individuals in the mental health system.[1] The Committee warned that any form of coercion in mental health care is incompatible with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) welcomed the initiative and called for similar protections to be adopted in United States law.

Jan Eastgate, CCHR's International President, noted that although the CRPD was adopted in 2007 and drew heavily on U.S. disability-rights principles, the United States has never ratified the treaty, citing the existence of a predecessor law—the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).[2] Eastgate stressed that the ADA should be reformed to provide explicit protections against forced psychiatric institutionalization and treatment, protections already guaranteed under international human rights law.

The CRPD Committee's Open Letter makes the following key points:

• The UNCRPD prohibits involuntary placement and involuntary treatment without exceptions. Involuntary placement and involuntary treatment, whether as measures of last resort or subject to certain safeguards, are still incompatible with the human rights model of disability.
• They perpetuate institutional power imbalances that have been widely documented as exposing persons with disabilities to torture and ill-treatment.
• Evidence-based reports have concluded widespread violence experienced by persons with disabilities in institutions, along with harm and death caused by involuntary commitment and involuntary treatment. There are no therapeutic benefits and a lack of clinical evidence supporting use of coercion and involuntary institutionalization.
• Involuntary placement, involuntary treatment, seclusion, restraint and similar practices are not legitimate rights-based responses to distress or crisis, but discriminatory measures that deny legal capacity, undermine liberty, and may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

CCHR emphasizes that these human rights perspectives are urgently needed in the United States, where 1.2 million Americans are involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities every year. The consequences of coercion can be lethal: a July 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of New York study found that individuals who were involuntarily hospitalized were nearly two times as likely to die by suicide or overdose within three months of release.[3] An estimated 100,000 Americans receive electroshock treatment annually, and state laws in many jurisdictions still permit it to be administered involuntarily—despite well-documented risks of memory loss and brain damage. Between 2016 and 2022, there was a 141% increase in the use of pharmacologic restraint among hospitalized children ages 5–17 with a mental health diagnosis.[4] Often-used physical restraints can cause serious injury or death. Recent cases involving the restraint deaths of a 7-year-old and a 16-year-old each resulted in homicide rulings by medical examiners and the prosecution of at least six staff members.[5]

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Eastgate concluded: "The United States can no longer claim leadership on disability rights while continuing to allow forced psychiatric detention and treatment. It is unmistakably clear that coercion has no place in the mental health field. U.S. law should be brought into full alignment with international human rights standards. Anything less abandons the very principles of liberty and equality that America champions."

CCHR, established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz, has achieved hundreds of laws that empower patients with informed consent and the right to legal representation against loss of liberty and forced treatment in psychiatric institutions.

Sources:

[1] United Nations Committee for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, "Open Letter to United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies, 1 July 2026

[2] www.cchrint.org/2026/01/30/europe-rejects-forced-psychiatry/

[3] www.cchrint.org/2026/04/03/congressional-roundtable-exposes-mental-health-crisis/; Natalia Emanuel, et al. "A Danger to Self and Others: Health and Criminal Consequences of Involuntary Hospitalization," Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1158, July 2025

[4] www.cchrint.org/2023/12/29/study-finds-141-increase-in-psychotropic-drug-restraints-of-children/; Pharmacologic Restraint Use During Mental Health Admissions to Children's Hospitals," Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics

[5] www.cchrint.org/2023/12/29/study-finds-141-increase-in-psychotropic-drug-restraints-of-children/

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