I A A P A
International Association Against Psychiatric Assault

Sad, but in Germany the CRPD is of no use to us

Dear Friends,

In Germany our practical everyday experience for the last 12 years has convinced us that the UN-convention CRPD is practically useless and disregarded. It was not ratified e.g. by the USA and even where it was ratified - e.g. in Germany - it was only used for a fraud*. The ratification of the CRPD transformed it's rules to be an ordinary law. In order to help a person who wishes to fight for his/her freedom and human dignity we needed a reasoning which is based on the rules of the German constitution which only is superior to ordinary law. CRPD and mental health laws are both ordinary law and as both are in a conflict, the judges weighed the mental health laws to be prevailing.

In our practice over the years we concluded that for now a non-violent psychiatry according to the UN rules is too big a step, so we chose to follow Rosa Luxemburg's suggestion when she spoke about a dialectic of reform and revolution. We have to demand a reform having in mind the revolution advancing it by such a reform. In our case this is a law which rules Medical Directives for all illness in any stage and therefore allows for a "bullet proof" Psychiatric Advance Directive (PAD) in which one can prohibit not only any coercive treatment but also any psychiatric diagnosis. By such a PAD we can demonstrate that the psychiatric "science" is a fraud, it is subjective, not objective as a science because we are a living proof for "Insane? Your own choice!"

We learned that our special PAD (which we named "PatVerfue") can help in the urgency of a psychiatric assault crisis whether it is a forced diagnosis alone or a full psychiatric incarceration etc. And other useful advice that could be learned is that in a psychiatric advance directive it should always be insisted on the denial of any belief in the existence of a „mental illness“. That was the key point for our success at the German supreme court, when our special PAD was contested by lower courts, see the Commentary on the successful complaint at the supreme court in Germany.
So we don't suggest dismissing the CRPD, just not to rely on it, rather continue to use it like background noise.


To demonstrate the necessity of a POLITICAL strategy and to explain the basics of our struggle we use a "reverse" PAD.** We called it a positive PAD, which explicitly authorizes coercive psychiatric measures. We distribute this positive PAD to the public and ask who wants to fill out and sign it? Typically, nobody wants to do it. (It is especially funny that medical staff mostly also do not want to fill out this form, so one may say that they are "insane", the craziness is on their behalf :-)
This is a demonstration that all which is authorized on a positive PAD form happens without consent and automatically by the existing laws and a convincing argument that the existing law is hostile to its citizens and must be abolished.
In that way we teach people that only such a positive PAD could be legitimate and a legal basis for any psychiatric coercion. The comparison we make is that any sadistic sexual practice must have the consent of both parties, it is torture if one could by law be treated sadistically and by force but this happens automatically in psychiatry. Nowhere and never should it be necessary to exclude such torture by a written document because it is a basic human right not to be tortured. So only psychiatry is the big exception.

This is our strategy:
a) a new law abolishing all legal measures for psychiatric coercion as well as guardianship against one's will is necessary and unavoidable
b) until a) is fulfilled, demand a new law for medical advance directives with no limits for any illness at any stage, including any diagnosing
c) as soon as such a new law b) comes into force, be prepared instantly to promote such a special PAD (e.g. according to our template PatVerfue, see the English version here: Â https://www.patverfue.de/cms-96TK/media/patverfue-en_neu.pdf)
d) for any challenge to this special PAD from psychiatrists and/or judges be prepared to have several lawyers on your side who are willing to fight through such a precedence case to the supreme court. That would bring the final blessing by the juridical system as we succeed, see
the Commentary on the successful complaint at the supreme court in Germany.
I trust that this information will help all who wish to safeguard their freedom and dignity in the urgent crisis of psychiatric assault.

Best regards
rene talbot
(Secretary of IAAPA and member of the board of a national German user and survivor organization)

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* See: UN-Convention Fraud - A chronicle of events https://www.iaapa.de/zwang4/chronicle.htm
In 2011 the supreme court, in a decision concerning forced treatment ruled the CRPD out of the game, although it is ratified in Germany. We assume that the deal behind the scenes was that the supreme court negated every CRPD argument given by our lawyer. Since, according to the CRPD, all psychiatric coercion would have to be abolished, the German supreme court preferred a decision in favour of the nullification of the CRPD and instead ruled the existing law to be unlawful and an advance medical directive to be binding. For details read: https://www.zwangspsychiatrie.de/good-news-from-the-supreme-court-in-germany/

**see here the template in English:
https://www.iaapa.de/il/image/users/46024/ftp/my_files/text-files/Positive%20psychiatric%20advance%20directive.htm
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