Verdict of the Russell Tribunal on Psychiatry 

Monday, July 2, 2001 

As a result of the evidence it has heard in its first session in Berlin over the weekend of June 30/July 1, 2001, the Tribunal is convinced that the serious abuse of human rights in the name of psychiatry is widespread but largely unrecognized. 

In accordance with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights all the members of the jury deeply deplore the incarceration of people against their will in the name of psychiatry. The perpetuation of such practices is a threat to individual and collective liberty everywhere. 

We consider the concept of "mental illness" and the "medical model" of psychiatry to explain human behaviour dangerous and fallacious because it is deterministic (particularly in the case of bio-psychiatry) deprives people of choice and responsibility. It even justifies concepts such as the legal category of "mental patient" which permits a total deprivation of human and civil rights and actually can be used to exculpate anti social and criminal actions. 

We deplore the action of the Free University which reneged upon its promise to host the Tribunal following pressure of its Department of Psychiatry. Furthermore we were disappointed by the failure of arrangements made with the German Television and the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. Nevertheless we are determined to continue our investigations and hearings and to use the media and all means of communication available to explore these abuses and to alert public opinion to the dangers to human freedom presented by the uncritical acceptance of the claims and practices of psychiatry. We think further investigation should be conducted to explore specific psychiatric abuses: forced drugging, electroshock, four point restraint and involuntary hospitalization. 

Strict legal and political supervision of mental hospitals and psychiatric practices is a prerequisite for the effective protection of human rights. Legal mechanisms should include legal representation, access to relevant documents, civil or criminal liability for incarceration and prohibition of discrimination against "mental patients". Further political and public steps should be taken including critical public examination of the role of psychiatry, its scientific basis and the justifiability of contemporary psychiatric practice. 

Psychiatry not only refuses to renounce the force it has historically obtained from the state, it even takes on the role of a highly paid and respected agent of social control and international police force over behaviour and the repression of political and social dissent. 

We find psychiatry guilty of the combination of force and unaccountability, a classic definition of totalitarian systems. We demand the abolition of the "mental patient" laws as a first step toward making psychiatry accountable to society. To this end, compensation should be made for harms it has done. Public funds should be made available for humane and dignified alternatives to coercive psychiatry. 

signed: 
Ken Fleet 
Esther Hertzog 
Ron Leifer 
Jacob Emanuel Mabe 
Kate Millett 
Wolf-Dieter Narr 
Richard E. Vatz 

Jury members Alon Harel and Paulo Coelho have added the following minority opinion. 

Minority Opinion 

As a result of the evidence we the minority members of the jury (Paulo Coelho and Alon Harel) heard in the first session in Berlin over the weekend of June 30 and July 1, 2001, we are convinced that the serious abuse of human rights in the name of psychiatry is widespread, but largely unrecognized. 

We the minority also deeply deplore the unjustified incarceration of people against their will in the name of psychiatry as a gross violation of human rights. We think that further investigation and hearings should be conducted to explore the abuses and alert public opinion to the dangers to human freedom presented by the uncritical acceptance of the claims and practices of psychiatry. 

Strict legal and political supervision of mental hospitals and psychiatric practices is a prerequisite for the effective protection of human rights. Legal mechanisms should include legal representation, access to relevant documents, civil or criminal liability for unjustified incarceration and prohibition of unjust discrimination against mental patients. 

Further political and public steps should be taken. Those include public critical examination of the role of psychiatry, its scientific basis and the justifiability of contemporary psychiatric practices. Paulo Coelho and Alon Harel (members of the jury)

Opinions expressed in this web site do not necessarily reflect the views of NAMI Santa Cruz County, NAMI California or any affiliated organizations.  We attempt to present a balanced perspective on issues by presenting multiple viewpoints.

Copyright 2005 National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Santa Cruz County, All Rights Reserved.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (©) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml  If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.