The association is a Human Rights organization that opposes psychiatric coercion and aims to abolish psychiatric coercive measures altogether, promoting the fundamental rights of self-determination, liberty, and human dignity.

This is a joint resolution of International Associaton Against Psychiatric Assault (www.iaapa.ch);
der Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Psychiatrie- Erfahrener e.V. (www.die-bpe.de);
Landesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener NRW e.V.
Landesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener
Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. and
Irren-Offensive e.V. in the Werner-Fuss- Zentrum (www.zwangspsychiatrie.de)

The CPT plans new torture-concealment visits

It has come to our notice
that this year the “European Committee for the Prevention of Torture
and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CPT)” amongst others, again has “visits” in German psychiatric
hospitals on the agenda. Since 01.01.2009 by ratification of the UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Federal Republic
of Germany, psychiatric coercive
measures are a crime. The Convention
requires in Article 14 „that the existence
of a disability shall in no case justify a deprivation
of liberty”. The German “mentally ill laws” (PsychKG) which permit forced
incarceration on the grounds of
a disability, an alleged “mental illness”, thus become illegitimate and illegal special laws
that must be abolished. [1] The
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities confirmed what is stated in the
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights since 1948 and also according to the European Human Rights Convention of 1953
this applies anyway to: Coercive measures by psychiatry, incarceration, forced
treatment and incapacitation, are
worldwide
and in all cases a serious human rights violation, primarily deprivation of
liberty, bodily injury, violation of personal rights and human dignity.In addition, coercive psychiatric treatment corresponds
to the criteria of torture, as defined by the “United
Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment” which was
adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1984: The inmates in the
psychiatric prisons are especially subjected to severe physical and mental pain or suffering by the
forced application of psychiatric drugs and electric shocks (socalled
“ECT”). The intentional and
forced treatment, intimidation and coercion in closed psychiatry
wards is aimed at obtaining
the confession of “illness insight” and thus to obtain “compliance.”
The socalled former
“non-illness-insighted” should be made tame and (apparently) willing to
accept “treatment”. This
takes place on the basis of discrimination and slander by labeling
people as “mentally ill“.
This suffering is caused at the instigation of and with the explicit
consent of members of the
public service. The torture practiced
by psychiatry is not a matter of individual cases or an occasional abuse of power by the
psychiatric staff, but is the rule in every closed institution,
because in Germany the
psychiatric coercive laws such as the PsychKG still exist, even though
they should have been
abolished at the very latest in the course of the ratification of the
UN Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities. [2]Similarly, just as the
will-breaking entry into the body during a rape, forced treatment in
psychiatry cannot be
legalized, even if, as some “experts” believe, it is “reviewed” or “controlled” by a judge.[3] Such “human rights experts” position
themselves outside the basic principles of human rights in order
to protect the psychiatric
torture measures. A rape too remains a rape, even if it is ordered,
reviewed and monitored by a
judge, executed by a doctor and called “medical treatment”.The “European Committee for
the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment“(CPT) is by one seventh (6 of
42) staffed with psychiatrists and is therefore biased.[4] Instead of acting against the
psychiatric violence and torture immanent in the psychiatric system and
the psychiatric special laws
which were also designated by the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNHCHR) in October
2008 as “intrinsically
discriminatory” and “unlawful”
laws[5], and based on this
reasoning, to reprimand the concerning governments of the Council of
Europe, the CPT sees its “first priority” at most as being
to „ascertain whether there are any
indications of the deliberate illtreatment of
patients. “[6] Contrary to statements by the UN and its High
Commissioner, the CPT is of the
opinion that “in any psychiatric establishment, the restraint of
agitated and/or violent patients may on occasion be necessary” and it also
approves the use of “straps,
strait-jackets, etc.”.[7]

For these reasons, with
regard to the individual case- inspections organized by the CPT, the
visits only to individual
psychiatric torture crime scenes, which the CPT trivializes as “some places of detention”, [8] which only “to be fully effective” “should be both regular and
unannounced” and where “the authority
concerned should be empowered
to interview detained persons in private” [9] [10], we name them for what they are: Veiled torture measures, which should
continue to nurture the illusion that torture measures
could still be legitimized by a law and by a judge’s decision and that
the appearance
of legality would be justified.This applies particularly
with respect to the countries of the Council of Europe, which the UN
Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities signed and ratified. So far they are: Austria
(26.09.2008), Azerbaijan
(28.01.2009), Belgium (02.07.2009), Bosnia and Herzegovina (12.03.2010),
Croatia (15.08. 2007), Czech
Republic (28.09.2009), Denmark ( 24.07.2009), France (18.02.2010),
Germany (24.02.2009), Hungary
(20.07.2007), Italy (15.05.2009), Latvia (01.03.2010), Montenegro
(02.11.2009) , Portugal
(23.09.2009), San Marino (22.02.2008), Serbia (31.07.2009), Slovenia
(24.04.2008), Spain
(03.12.2007), Sweden (15.12.2008), Turkey (28.09.2009) , Ukraine
(04.02.2010), United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (07.08.2009).[11]

Thus the CPT has become our
political opponent, by turning its “individual case- inspections” and
its should-be-unannounced
“visits”, which are moreover connected to recommendations to psychiatry
with regard to “enhanced”
control techniques[12], into torture perfectioning measures, thereby
making a caricature of both
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the
comments by the UN High
Commissioner concerning this matter and also damaging the entire United
Nations and the idea of
universal human rights. We need neither this torture-veiling-committee,
nor its visits and we will not
act as advisors to such a committee or be complicit with the
corresponding assistance to the concealment of torture of psychiatric
inmates. However, should the “European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)” in a first step be prepared to take a stand and fight the
illegal ongoing psychiatric special laws of the governments of Germany and the other countries of the
Council of Europe which have ratified the UN Convention on

the Right s of Persons with
Disabilities, a collaboration would certainly enter into the realm of
the possible.

March / April 2010

This resolution was sent to all
members of the CPT on 17 April 2010.

————————————
[1] cf Kaleck / Hilbrans / Scharmer, 2008:
Gutachterliche Stellungnahme. Ratifikation der UN Disability Convention
vom 30.03.2007 und Auswirkung auf die Gesetze für so genannte psychisch
Kranke am Beispiel der Zwangsunterbringung und Zwangsbehandlung nach
dem PsychKG Berlin. URL: www.die-bpe.de/stellungnahme
ii Further to q.v. Halmi, Alice: Coercive psychiatry a torture system.
In: “Zwang” – Journal, No. 2, Berlin 2004, Page 4-7, URL: www.iaapa.de/zwang2/halmi_english.htm
[2] Prof. Theresia Degener (Protestant University of Applied Sciences
of Bochum) recommended, that “in her view, control and review of
medical actions should not be exclusively on the hands of doctors
(medical review) but of judges (judicial review)” In: Office of the
high commissioner for human rights: Report on the Expert seminar on
freedom from torture and
[3] treatment and persons with disabilities “, Geneva 11.12.2007,Page
12,
URL:www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/disability/docs/torture/seminartorturereportfinal.doc
[4] Psychiatrists in the CPT: Pétur Hauksson, Vladimir Ortakov, Olivera
Vulić, Stefan Weinberg Krakowski, Nadia Polnareva, Anna Molnar. Cf.:
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT): CPT Members. Effective [date]:
04.03.2010, URL: www.cpt.coe.int/en/members.htm
[5] “The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
states clearly that deprivation of liberty based on the existence of a
disability is contrary to international human rights law, is
intrinsically discriminatory, and is therefore unlawful.” In: UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR): Dignity and Justice for
Detainees week [6th-12th October 2008]. Information Note No. 4, Page 2,
URL: www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/60UDHR/detention_infonote_4.pdf
Qv: “Legislation Authorizing the Institutionalization of persons with
disabilities on the grounds of their disability without their free and
informed consent must be abolished. … “. In: United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR): Annual report of the United
Nations High Commissioner and the Secretary General. A/HCR/10/48,
26.1.2009, Page 16, URL: www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/10session/A.HRC.10.48.pdf
[6] European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT): The CPT standarts. CPT / Inf /
E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2006, Page 57, URL: www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards.pdf
[7] Ibid.: Page 62
[8] CPT apt: – Council of Europe: A visit by the CPT-What’s it all
about? , May 1999, Page 10, URL:
www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/doc-visit-by-cpt.pdf
[9] CPT: The CPT standards. CPT / Inf / E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2006, Page
14, URL: www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards.pdf
[10] Accentuation bold made by the authors
[11] Council of Europe: Der Europarat in Kürze. Effective [date]:
28.03.2010, URL:
ww.coe.int/aboutCoe/index.asp?page=quisommesnous&l=de
and: United Nations: enable Ratifications – Countries that have
ratified the Convention, Effective [date] 28.03.2010, URL: www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=257
[12] Q.v. e.g. in the “standards of the CPT:”Staff in psychiatric
establishments should receive training in both non-physical and manual
control techniques vis-à-vis agitated or violent patients.” “In: CPT:
The CPT standards. CPT / Inf / E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2006, Page 63, URL: www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards.pdf

International Association Against Psychiatric Assault

The CPT plans new torture-concealment visits