Letter to World Federation for Mental Health

Letter to World Federation for Mental Health

by David Oaks, Support Coalition International

July 4, 2001

Dear World Federation for Mental Health staff, board and members,

I look forward to seeing many of you in just a few weeks. We are writing to ask that you withdraw your sanction of the World Assembly for Mental Health. Whether or not you do that, we ask that you all individually join us in our human rights rally and protest outside the opening of the World Assembly for Mental Health on July 22, 2001, in Vancouver, Canada.

When I attended the WFMH World Congress in Santiago two years ago, I actually felt some hope. I talked to many WFMH leaders. For hours, I personally talked for hours with WFMH President Ahmed El Azayem. I participated in the plenary and business meetings. Many other Support Coalition members have also attempted to participate in a variety of ways, over the years.

I am writing now to say that we feel we have no choice but to hold a nonviolent legal protest of the World Assembly for Mental Health. We invite all WFMH staff and members to also participate in this human rights rally, and protest of the World Assembly for Mental Health. We request that WFMH formally withdraw its sanction of the World Assembly for Mental Health, so that this event cannot use the name of WFMH.

This e-mail is to express a few of our concerns:

	We appreciate that WFMH has provided us disclosure of psychiatric drug company funding, such as for World Mental Health Day. However, the organizers of the World Assembly for Mental Health repeatedly refused to disclose the amounts of money they are receiving from the psychiatric drug industry. WFMH should require the World Assembly to fully disclose this secret funding. We know from a reliable source the amount is very large.
	WFMH has lost control of its own event. Your World Congress has now become a "World Assembly," including sponsorship by the World Psychiatric Association, which has a history of opposition to human rights of people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. I have heard that you lost designation of a WFMH World Congress, and that it now co-sponsored by WPA and other psychiatric industry groups, and thus it is an "Assembly." Please correct me if I'm wrong.
	A token plenary and a few workshops have been given to mental heath consumers, psychiatric survivors and dissident mental health professionals. But by and large the overwhelming voice of the World Assembly -- according to preliminary programs -- is that of the mainstream psychiatric system, endorsing more of the same failed authoritarian biopsychiatric approach.
	Your conference organizer has responded to our e-mail and even met with an SCI representative... but by and large has ignored suggestions for having this conference be truly welcoming to individuals who have experienced human rights violations in the "mental health system." From what I have seen, I would even describe this event as potentially emotionally toxic to such individuals, because it silencing of dissent is re-traumatizing.
	WFMH has continued to work closely with the World Bank on its proposed mental health template, but this project has not significantly included the voices and concerns of the people effected -- mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors.
	Pressing issues such as involuntary electroshock, involuntary psychiatric drugging, forced drugging on an outpatient basis, over use of psychiatric drugs, psychiatric drug hazards, criticisms of the biopsychiatric model, promotion of a range of humane alternatives... have all been largely ignored by the WFMH and the World Assembly.
	Since Santiago, Chile Support Coalition has brought up these concerns through members, through WFMH board members, through e-mail, through phone calls, through personal representatives in Vancouver, and more. However, this negotiation has been roundly rejected. Listening without acting is just window dressing, and is an insult.

Martin Luther King and Gandhi said that when confronted with injustice one must research, then negotiate, then purify, then protest. We have researched WFMH and the World Congress, for several years. We have repeatedly attempted to negotiate, but the proof is in the pudding -- and obviously our concerns were by and large dismissed.

As Gandhi and King have said, this leaves us with nonviolent protest, in order to maintain our dignity in the face of the terrible insult that your World Assembly has become... An insult to the 30 year history of the psychiatric survivor movement... An insult to all those people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities who are attempting to speak out and resist horrible human rights violations.

For this reason and more, I am pleased, honored, and gratified to support and participate in the legal, nonviolent human rights rally to take place directly in front of the opening of the World Assembly, in front of the Vancouver Convention Centre, Sunday, July 22, 2001, from 3 pm to 5 pm.

This is my 25th year as a human rights activist, and I can tell you I am deeply and personally touched by the individuals who agreed to speak at the human rights rally, from several countries. I am glad I will be where I need to be when your event opens.

Since this rally is being held in another country, we can't predict the turnout -- but whether it is 20 or 200, for me, the REAL "mental healing" is in this rally, because it is speaking out against injustice. I encourage you all to join us, even if it is a protest of your own event.

Again, our intent is to have a legal, nonviolent expression of our human rights, and we'd appreciate your respect for those human rights to speak out. We have already notified your conference organizer, Venue West, Vancouver Convention Centre, and their landlord. We have filed the correct Vancouver police permit for the rally, and we have obtained the required insurance. We will have monitors.

One of your own leaders and founders, in an article in the American Psychiatric Association "Psychiatric News," identified the psychiatric survivors/mental health consumers movement as one of the key factors in the next ten years.

The article gave me hope. But it is a hope that is dashed and insulted. For our dignity, for our freedom, for our independence, for the sisters and brothers who are being shocked, drugged, tied down, locked up, labeled, impoverished and even killed by the current psychiatric system... We must conduct nonviolent protests of the World Federation for Mental Health and its World Assembly for Mental Health.

David Oaks,
Director Support Coalition International
454 Willamette, Suite 216
PO Box 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484
USA

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