Popular on s4story
- Experience Trembling Firsthand with the New AgeMan® Tremor Simulator - 108
- Venardi Zurada LLP Offers Legal Support to Families After Deadly Lake Tahoe Boat Capsizing
- Jasmine Farrell Releases New LGBTQ+ Poetry Collection - Rising From the Roots
- Keepy Uppy™ by Ollyball Wins Prestigious 2025 Influencer Award from Clamour & The Toy Association; Announces Fall 2025 Launch at Target Stores
- K2 Integrity's U.S. and EMEA Teams Recognized in Chambers and Partners 2025 Guides
- Elevated Healing Treatment Centers: Redefining Mental Health Care with Compassionate, Evidence-Based, and Accessible Services
- Lottery.com Inc. Secures $300 Million in Growth Capital, Confirms Nasdaq Compliance & Acquires UAE Sports Incubator Amid High-Profile Brand Exposure
- Holiday Inn Express North Hollywood Burbank Area Announces Conversion to Hampton Inn North Hollywood
- ASI Accelerates iMIS® Innovation by Acquiring CSI's Product Suite and Expert Team
- Anna D. Banks' Street Smart, Money Smart Hits #1 on Amazon Teen & Young Adult New Releases Chart
Similar on s4story
- The Blue Luna Encourages Local Schools to Take Steps to Enhance Safety for Students and Staff
- Josh and Heidi Follow Up the Much Anticipated and Successful Launch of the "Spreading the Good BUZZ" Podcast with a Personal Request
- Stuck Doing Math or Figuring Out Life's Numbers? Calculator.now Makes It Stupidly Simple
- Colbert Packaging Announces WBENC Recognition
- Pyro Marketing Opens New Digital Marketing Company in Saint Petersburg to Power Growth for Fitness and Ecommerce Brands
- Dr. John Salerno of Salerno Wellness Introduces Their New Full Body Capsule for Advanced LED Light Therapy Patient Treatments
- Heartfelt Dreams Foundation Launches Campaign to Build CHD Hospital
- Radarsign Tackles Intersection Safety with Launch of Grid-Free Solar LED Stop Sign
- LIB and Nidec Rejoin Forces for Giant TH-0098 Temperature Humidity Test Chamber
- Deaths Spur Closures, but Troubled Teen Camps Must Be Banned, CCHR Warns
Global Court Momentum Builds Against Forced Psychiatry; CCHR Urges U.S. Reform
S For Story/10662543
Italy's top court rules part of involuntary psychiatric law unconstitutional; CCHR urges U.S. to adopt legal protections as WHO, UN, and global courts move to eliminate coercive mental health practices.
LOS ANGELES - s4story -- In what is being widely reported as a landmark human rights decision, Italy's Constitutional Court in May 2025 struck down part of the country's decades-old psychiatric law—Article 35 of Law 833/1978—declaring some of its provisions for involuntary detainment unconstitutional. The ruling affirms that individuals subjected to compulsory psychiatric hospitalization must have the right to challenge such detention in court with legal representation.[1]
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), based in Los Angeles, hailed the decision as an essential step towards achieving human rights in the mental health field. CCHR said its chapters worldwide are intensifying efforts to urge courts and lawmakers to follow suit and ultimately abolish forced psychiatric hospitalization and treatment. The group called on the United States to replicate—and expand—such protections.
In the U.S., the practice of forced psychiatric detainment has sharply escalated. According to David Cohen, professor of social welfare at UCLA's Luskin School, involuntary psychiatric detentions have increased at a rate three times higher than population growth in recent years.[2]
A 2023 report, Involuntary Civil Commitment: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Protections, posted on Congress.gov, underscores that such commitments "implicate constitutional concerns and constraints under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution," particularly regarding the liberty interests of confined individuals. Yet, it notes the U.S. Supreme Court has never conclusively ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all such protections.[3]
While the Italian court ruling is significant, CCHR notes that it stops short of banning Trattamento Sanitario Obbligatorio (TSO), the Italian legal framework for compulsory psychiatric hospitalization.[4] The U.S. similarly authorizes involuntary psychiatric treatment through legislative orders. In both countries, forced interventions remain legal despite mounting ethical criticism.
More on S For Story
Coercion in mental health settings has increasingly drawn global condemnation. Critics argue that forced psychiatric treatment fundamentally violates human dignity and autonomy. A 2023 study in BMC Psychiatry concluded that coercion is incompatible with human rights and "should be avoided as far as possible."[5] That same year, The Lancet warned that coercive psychiatric practices override patients' fundamental rights, and that approaches to reduce coercion are possible, and the cost of implementing them is minimal compared to the damage caused by forced interventions.[6]
Italy's decision follows another recent victory involving CCHR efforts in Europe. In Hungary, CCHR collaborated with legal experts to secure a Constitutional Court ruling that found Parliament had failed to provide legal avenues for individuals unlawfully detained in psychiatric facilities to seek compensation. Following sustained advocacy by CCHR Hungary, others, the Court and the President of the Republic, a new regulation was enacted on December 20, 2024, guaranteeing—for the first time—the legal right to compensation for victims of unlawful psychiatric detention.[7]
CCHR's international work continues to gain recognition. On June 2, 2025, New Zealand CCHR volunteer Victor Boyd was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit by King Charles III. The honor recognized his 50-year campaign with CCHR to expose coercive psychiatric practices, particularly those used against children at the now-closed Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital's Child and Adolescent Unit. Boyd's relentless advocacy through CCHR helped prompt a formal government acknowledgement of the abuse and torture carried out by a psychiatrist heading the unit. The award is endorsed by the New Zealand Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Cabinet.[8]
Momentum is also growing at the global policy level. The World Health Organization (WHO) released its Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plan in April 2025, recommending the prohibition of involuntary psychiatric practices—including forced hospitalization and treatment—and affirming individuals' right to refuse such treatment. The WHO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have repeatedly called for mental health systems to move away from coercion and adopt rights-respecting, support-based alternative approaches.
These international reforms are grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Italy ratified in 2009. The CRPD explicitly rejects coercive interventions in mental health care. Its General Comment No. 1 affirms that all individuals—regardless of disability status—retain full legal capacity and must be supported, not substituted, in making decisions about their lives and health.[9]
More on S For Story
Since its founding in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz, CCHR has worked alongside survivors, whistleblowers, and international legal experts to expose systemic psychiatric abuse and advocate for transparent, non-coercive mental health care. The growing international rulings, government acknowledgements, and awards highlight a turning tide—and CCHR says now is the time for the United States to implement legal reforms that respect the rights, liberty, and dignity of all individuals in mental health settings.
Sources:
[1] "CCHR Encourages Italy to Complete Full Mental Health Reform After Court Ruling on Forced Treatment," European Times, 5 June 2025, europeantimes.news/2025/06/cchr-italy-full-mental-health-reform-court-ruling-forced-treatment/
[2] www.einnews.com/pr_news/656273520/new-who-mental-health-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices; "Study finds involuntary psychiatric detentions on the rise," UCLA Newsroom, 3 Nov. 2020, newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/involuntary-psychiatric-detentions-on-the-rise
[3] Hannah-Alise Rogers, "Involuntary Civil Commitment: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Protections," Health Care; Law, Constitution & Civil Liberties, 24 May 2023, www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47571
[4] "CCHR Encourages Italy to Complete Full Mental Health Reform After Court Ruling on Forced Treatment," European Times, 5 June 2025, europeantimes.news/2025/06/cchr-italy-full-mental-health-reform-court-ruling-forced-treatment/
[5] Eva Brekke, et al., "Patients' experiences with coercive mental health treatment in Flexible Assertive Community Treatment: a qualitative study," BMC Psychiatry, 18 Oct. 2023, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37853402/
[6] Beate Wild, et al., "Reduction of coercion in psychiatric hospitals: how can this be achieved?" The Lancet, Dec. 2023, www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(23)00214-4/fulltext
[7] www.cchrint.org/2025/05/17/apa-faces-outrage-child-deaths-mental-health-failure/
[8] "King's Birthday Honours: Advocate dedicates award to survivors of abuse in care," RNZ, 2 June 2025, www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/562817/king-s-birthday-honours-advocate-dedicates-award-to-survivors-of-abuse-in-care; "Abuses in psychiatric care: The shameful story of the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent unit in Aotearoa New Zealand," Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 2023 Sep;57(9):1193-1197, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10466991/; www.cchrint.org/2021/07/01/cchrs-work-acknowledged-nz-inquiry-lake-alice-psychiatric-child-torture/
[9] "CCHR Encourages Italy to Complete Full Mental Health Reform After Court Ruling on Forced Treatment," European Times, 5 June 2025, europeantimes.news/2025/06/cchr-italy-full-mental-health-reform-court-ruling-forced-treatment/
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), based in Los Angeles, hailed the decision as an essential step towards achieving human rights in the mental health field. CCHR said its chapters worldwide are intensifying efforts to urge courts and lawmakers to follow suit and ultimately abolish forced psychiatric hospitalization and treatment. The group called on the United States to replicate—and expand—such protections.
In the U.S., the practice of forced psychiatric detainment has sharply escalated. According to David Cohen, professor of social welfare at UCLA's Luskin School, involuntary psychiatric detentions have increased at a rate three times higher than population growth in recent years.[2]
A 2023 report, Involuntary Civil Commitment: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Protections, posted on Congress.gov, underscores that such commitments "implicate constitutional concerns and constraints under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution," particularly regarding the liberty interests of confined individuals. Yet, it notes the U.S. Supreme Court has never conclusively ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all such protections.[3]
While the Italian court ruling is significant, CCHR notes that it stops short of banning Trattamento Sanitario Obbligatorio (TSO), the Italian legal framework for compulsory psychiatric hospitalization.[4] The U.S. similarly authorizes involuntary psychiatric treatment through legislative orders. In both countries, forced interventions remain legal despite mounting ethical criticism.
More on S For Story
- Cover Girl Finalist Teisha Mechetti Questions Legitimacy of Inked Originals Competition, Demands Transparency
- Author Launches The Starlight Bond Website with Movie Licensing Proposal
- Easton & Easton, LLP Files Suit Against The Dwelling Place Anaheim & Vineyard USA Over Abuse Allegations
- AI Visibility: The Key to Beating Google's AI Overviews and Regaining Traffic
- Stuck Doing Math or Figuring Out Life's Numbers? Calculator.now Makes It Stupidly Simple
Coercion in mental health settings has increasingly drawn global condemnation. Critics argue that forced psychiatric treatment fundamentally violates human dignity and autonomy. A 2023 study in BMC Psychiatry concluded that coercion is incompatible with human rights and "should be avoided as far as possible."[5] That same year, The Lancet warned that coercive psychiatric practices override patients' fundamental rights, and that approaches to reduce coercion are possible, and the cost of implementing them is minimal compared to the damage caused by forced interventions.[6]
Italy's decision follows another recent victory involving CCHR efforts in Europe. In Hungary, CCHR collaborated with legal experts to secure a Constitutional Court ruling that found Parliament had failed to provide legal avenues for individuals unlawfully detained in psychiatric facilities to seek compensation. Following sustained advocacy by CCHR Hungary, others, the Court and the President of the Republic, a new regulation was enacted on December 20, 2024, guaranteeing—for the first time—the legal right to compensation for victims of unlawful psychiatric detention.[7]
CCHR's international work continues to gain recognition. On June 2, 2025, New Zealand CCHR volunteer Victor Boyd was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit by King Charles III. The honor recognized his 50-year campaign with CCHR to expose coercive psychiatric practices, particularly those used against children at the now-closed Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital's Child and Adolescent Unit. Boyd's relentless advocacy through CCHR helped prompt a formal government acknowledgement of the abuse and torture carried out by a psychiatrist heading the unit. The award is endorsed by the New Zealand Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Cabinet.[8]
Momentum is also growing at the global policy level. The World Health Organization (WHO) released its Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plan in April 2025, recommending the prohibition of involuntary psychiatric practices—including forced hospitalization and treatment—and affirming individuals' right to refuse such treatment. The WHO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have repeatedly called for mental health systems to move away from coercion and adopt rights-respecting, support-based alternative approaches.
These international reforms are grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Italy ratified in 2009. The CRPD explicitly rejects coercive interventions in mental health care. Its General Comment No. 1 affirms that all individuals—regardless of disability status—retain full legal capacity and must be supported, not substituted, in making decisions about their lives and health.[9]
More on S For Story
- Colbert Packaging Announces WBENC Recognition
- DivX Empowers Media Enthusiasts with Free Expert Guides for Advanced MP4 Management
- Northport's Family Night Welcomes Local Author and a Tale of Ancient Secrets
- Assent Expands Executive Team to Accelerate Global Growth & Innovation
- "Menace: An Agent Dean Cold Novel" by Ray Keating Lands Soon!
Since its founding in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz, CCHR has worked alongside survivors, whistleblowers, and international legal experts to expose systemic psychiatric abuse and advocate for transparent, non-coercive mental health care. The growing international rulings, government acknowledgements, and awards highlight a turning tide—and CCHR says now is the time for the United States to implement legal reforms that respect the rights, liberty, and dignity of all individuals in mental health settings.
Sources:
[1] "CCHR Encourages Italy to Complete Full Mental Health Reform After Court Ruling on Forced Treatment," European Times, 5 June 2025, europeantimes.news/2025/06/cchr-italy-full-mental-health-reform-court-ruling-forced-treatment/
[2] www.einnews.com/pr_news/656273520/new-who-mental-health-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices; "Study finds involuntary psychiatric detentions on the rise," UCLA Newsroom, 3 Nov. 2020, newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/involuntary-psychiatric-detentions-on-the-rise
[3] Hannah-Alise Rogers, "Involuntary Civil Commitment: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Protections," Health Care; Law, Constitution & Civil Liberties, 24 May 2023, www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47571
[4] "CCHR Encourages Italy to Complete Full Mental Health Reform After Court Ruling on Forced Treatment," European Times, 5 June 2025, europeantimes.news/2025/06/cchr-italy-full-mental-health-reform-court-ruling-forced-treatment/
[5] Eva Brekke, et al., "Patients' experiences with coercive mental health treatment in Flexible Assertive Community Treatment: a qualitative study," BMC Psychiatry, 18 Oct. 2023, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37853402/
[6] Beate Wild, et al., "Reduction of coercion in psychiatric hospitals: how can this be achieved?" The Lancet, Dec. 2023, www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(23)00214-4/fulltext
[7] www.cchrint.org/2025/05/17/apa-faces-outrage-child-deaths-mental-health-failure/
[8] "King's Birthday Honours: Advocate dedicates award to survivors of abuse in care," RNZ, 2 June 2025, www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/562817/king-s-birthday-honours-advocate-dedicates-award-to-survivors-of-abuse-in-care; "Abuses in psychiatric care: The shameful story of the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent unit in Aotearoa New Zealand," Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 2023 Sep;57(9):1193-1197, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10466991/; www.cchrint.org/2021/07/01/cchrs-work-acknowledged-nz-inquiry-lake-alice-psychiatric-child-torture/
[9] "CCHR Encourages Italy to Complete Full Mental Health Reform After Court Ruling on Forced Treatment," European Times, 5 June 2025, europeantimes.news/2025/06/cchr-italy-full-mental-health-reform-court-ruling-forced-treatment/
Source: Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
Filed Under: Health
0 Comments
Latest on S For Story
- Adostics & Genmega Announce the Introduction of A-POD
- LIB and Nidec Rejoin Forces for Giant TH-0098 Temperature Humidity Test Chamber
- Wordeee Publishes Casting Pros to Know: Reality TV Edition by Asjai Lou
- Digi 995 Audiobooks Officially Released: Fans Can Now Listen to the Complete Trilogy
- Heritage at South Brunswick Offers Immediate Townhome Appointments and Special Mortgage Incentive Fast-Moving Sales
- New Children's Book Helps Kids and Parents Navigate Anxiety Together
- New TSA-Compliant Medication Packing Tool Helps Travelers Avoid Airport Delays and Customs Issues
- Wordeee Publishes Am I a Weed? by Margie Stiles
- NASA Collaborative Agreement for Supply of Thin-Film Solar Tech for Orbital Application to Advance Development of Thin-Film PV Power Beaming: $ASTI
- Sci-Fi Novel from Pittsburgh Author Explores Love, Power, & Humanity in an Age of Artificial People
- Exciting New Era of Sports, Entertainment & Gaming Innovation Spotlighted by Rebrand of Expanding AI Driven, Online Fan Engagement Company: SEGG Media
- Service Ninjas Debuts First-of-Its-Kind "Membership" Platform for Home Service Pros
- The Journey of BECOMING the Soul Alchemist — New Book by Kay Sanders Guides Readers to Deep Inner Transformation
- BIYA Forecasts 2025 Surge with ¥300M ($41.8 M USD) in Revenue and ¥25M Profit from Cloud Based HR Solutions: Baiya Intl. Group (N A S D A Q: BIYA)
- Paul E. Saperstein Co. Announces Geographic Expansion of Auction Services
- New Book by Veteran Entrepreneur Offers 60-Minute Marketing Strategy for First-Time Business Owners
- Wordeee Publishes Rule One By Michael Lucker
- Florida Broker Bent Danholm Featured in the Daily Mail's U.S. Real Estate Coverage
- Robin Launches Legal Intelligence Platform to solve intelligence gap in Fortune 500 legal teams
- Melissa B. Releases Digitally Independent: Empowering Music Artists with AI and Brand Strategy