Preamble:

In 2017, Dr. Dainius Pūras, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, called for a revolution in mental health care around the world to “end decades of neglect, abuse, and violence,” emphasizing the failures of a system that too heavily relies on the biomedical model of mental health services, including psychotropic drugs. It is therefore essential to recognize the following rights and ensure that every person has the right to be free from abusive, harmful treatment and coercive psychiatric practices.

Article 1: Right to Informed Consent

Every patient has the right to:

1. A scientific/medical test confirming diagnoses of a psychiatric disorder and the right to refute diagnoses of mental “illness” that cannot be medically confirmed.

2. The full disclosure of the risks and side effects of psychiatric drugs and other treatments, provided in writing in the patient’s native language and signed by both the doctor and the patient.

3. Be informed of medical treatments that do not involve psychotropic drugs or other psychiatric treatments.

4. Refuse to consent to psychiatric drugs and other harmful treatments, including electroshock therapy, psychosurgery, brain-intervention stimulation procedures, sterilization, narcotherapy, deep sleep treatment, and sterilization.

Article 2: Right to Dignity and Humane Treatment

Every patient has the right to:

1. Be treated with dignity as a human being, with respect for personal autonomy, and rights.

2. Access hospital amenities without distinction as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political opinion, social origin, or status by right of birth or property.

3. A thorough physical and clinical examination by a competent registered general practitioner of one’s choice, to ensure that mental conditions are not caused by undiagnosed and untreated physical illness, injury, or defect. And to seek a second opinion from a doctor of one’s choice.

4. Access fully equipped medical facilities and appropriately trained medical staff to perform competent examinations and medical treatments.

5. Choose the type of therapy to be employed, and to discuss this with a general practitioner, healer, or minister of one’s choice.

6. Ability to discharge oneself at any time and to be discharged without restriction.

Article 3: Right to Autonomy in Personal Affairs

Every patient has the right to:

1. Manage one’s own property and affairs, with the help of a legal advisor if necessary, or to have a state-appointed executor chosen by the patient, if deemed incompetent by law. The chosen executor must be accountable to the patient’s next of kin, legal advisor, or guardian.

2. Make and receive telephone calls, and the right to privacy regarding all personal correspondence to and from anyone, without unnecessary restriction or surveillance.

3. See and possess one’s hospital records and take legal action regarding any false information found in these records.

Article 4: Right to Personal Liberty and Communication

No person, man, woman, or child may be denied his or her personal liberty by reason of mental illness, without a fair jury trial by laymen and with proper legal representation.

Every patient has the right to:

1. Protection against coercive psychiatric practices, such as involuntary-forced detainment in a mental or behavioral institution, and against mental health systems that undermine legal capacity and permit coercive measures.

2. Make and receive telephone calls, and the right to privacy regarding all personal correspondence to and from anyone, without unnecessary restriction or surveillance.

3. Protection from abuse, including sexual abuse, harassment, or exploitation by any hospital or facility staff, patients, or others involved in the care process.

Article 5: Right to Legal Protections

Every patient has the right to:

1. Access private counsel with a legal advisor and to take legal action as needed.

2. Take criminal and civil action against any psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health institution and related facilities, or hospital staff for abuse, false imprisonment, assault, sexual abuse, or any violation of law.

3. Mental health laws that do no indemnify but hold professionals accountable for negligent or abusive treatment of patients, including in state-run psychiatric institutions.

4. Make official complaints without reprisal to an independent board composed of non-psychiatric personnel, lawyers, and laypeople, regarding any cruel, degrading or harmful treatment under psychiatric care, assisted if requested by a legal or other chosen advocate.

Article 6: Right to Freedom from Restraint and Brutalization

Every patient has the right to:

1. Be free from physical and chemical restraint that may endanger one’s life, seclusion, or solitary confinement. Restraint must never be used as a form of punishment, coercion or for staff convenience.

2. Be free from all forms of brutalization, torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. This includes physical violence, threats, verbal abuse, and any act that may cause unnecessary pain, suffering, or humiliation.

Article 7: Right to a Safe and Comfortable Environment

Every patient has the right to:

1. A safe environment without the presence of individuals placed there for criminal reasons.

2. Be with others of one’s own age group and to have personal clothing, effects, and secure storage for them.

3. Daily physical exercise in the open, and to proper diet and nutrition, with at least three meals a day.

4. Hygienic conditions, non-overcrowded facilities, and sufficient leisure and rest.

Article 8: Parental Rights in Their Child’s Mental Health Care

Parents have the right to:

1. Make Healthcare Decisions-Informed Consent – Retain the inalienable right to make all decisions regarding their child’s healthcare—including mental health care—and to refuse any mental health treatment they believe may be harmful to their child’s well-being.

2. Be Alert to Coerced Hospitalization or Treatment without Parents’ Knowledge – Forcing a child into psychiatric hospitalization and treatment against the parents’ knowledge or full, written informed consent, should be prohibited (Note, however, this right may not be fully protected under current law.)

3. Seek Legal Protection – Consult legal counsel to protect their child from unwanted intervention by the state, a mental health facility, psychiatrist, or other mental health professional acting against the parents’ knowledge or wishes.

4. Demand a Full Medical Evaluation – Demand that a thorough medical examination is conducted on their child—with parental permission—to rule out any undiagnosed physical or medical conditions that could explain the child’s behavioral or emotional issues.

5. Understand the Limits of Diagnosis in Informed Consent Provisions – Be informed that no medical test—such as X-rays, MRIs, blood tests, urine tests, or physical exams—can confirm a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder.

6. Receive Full Disclosure of Risks – a) Be fully informed in writing of all side effects, both short- and long-term, of proposed  treatments, especially confirmation that such treatments cannot harmfully effect the developing brain and body of children and adolescents; and

b) Be fully informed in writing that psychiatric treatments are not cures.

Article 9: Children’s Rights, Especially Under State Care

Children generally, and particularly those under state care—including foster care and juvenile detention centers—require special protections from psychiatric intervention imposed or sanctioned by the state.

Children have the right to:

1. Be free from psychotropic drugs—especially the practice of polypharmacy—and from any psychiatric treatment being administered or forced upon them.

2. Be free from the use of mechanical or chemical restraints, and from being held in seclusion.

3. Never be subjected to any mental health intervention used as a form of punishment.

4. Be free from the deprivation of basic rights and to be treated with dignity and kindness.

5. Report abuse within the mental health system to an independent agency without fear of retaliation.

Conclusion

These rights must be universally recognized and protected to ensure the dignity, freedom, and well-being of all individuals under mental health care.