Peter Lehmann
last update at May 23, 2005


About the "Draft Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States to ensure the protection of the human rights and dignity of people with mental disorder, especially those placed as involuntary patients in a psychiatric establishment"

  • Attention! Meanwhile the recommendation is adopted by the Europan Council.

  • July 19, 2004: Letter of the German foreign ministry and the announcment of the Committee of Ministers to adopt the convention in Septembe 2004

  • June 1, 2004: The Council of Europe Bioethics Steering Committee (CDBI) has submitted the final draft to the Committee of Ministers. No open, public hearing, no consultation, nothing the former president of CDBI promised.

  • February 2004: The Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe has developed a second and probably also a third RESTRICTED (secret) draft of a new recommendation to replace R83 as follow-ups of the first draft and the White Paper. (R83 is the European Parliament's recommendation "Recommendation R(83) 2 Concerning the legal protection of persons suffering from mental disorders placed as involuntary patients" from 1983. It is still in force and allows only forced treatment when detained in an establishment. You find it as an appendix to the White Paper.) The drafting process has been going on since 2000 as a follow-up of the White Paper which both ENUSP and WNUSP protested against. Via the Danish ministry of health Karl Bach Jensen raised a demand in the Committee on Bioethics to have the final draft published for a public hearing before it ends in the Committee of Ministers for approval.

  • Ms Ruth Reusser, lawyer from Switzerland and in 2003 chair of the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe, expressed her resistance against forced treatment outside an institution in an interview with Karl Bach, which was recorded and is on the internet, see and listen: www.lokaltv-aarhus.dk/sw2162.asp, click "Se video fra debatten". She promised a public hearing. But meanwhile she is not the chair of the Steering Committee any more. See the members of the (un-)resposnible "Working Party on psychiatry and human rights (CDBI-PH)."

  • This demand for a public hearing has now been rejected by a majority of the committee! A new drafting group had its last meeting February 4-6, 2004, and the Committee on Bioethics will have its next meeting March 16-19, 2004. Since the right of a state to legalise forced treatment in the community still seems to be included in the drafts, the threat against the human rights of (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry in Europe are still alarming. It is unknown if forced sterilisation and forced abortion still are included. It seems like the draft bills in England, Scotland and Germany are waiting for this draft to be finalised to make it easier to pass these semi fascist laws in the respective parliaments. Please try to convince your government not to let the draft pass without a public hearing!

Should this Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States to ensure the protection of the human rights and dignity of people with mental disorder, especially those placed as involuntary patients in a psychiatric establishment be accepted in its present form, it would produce a wide-ranging right to treatment, and more specifically a psychiatric right of involuntary/forced administration of toxic psychiatric drugs within and outside of Institutions.

National NGOs are called to submit to their respective governments, and international NGOs in the English or French languages to The Secretariat of the European Council, DGI I – Legal Affairs, Private Law Department, Council of Europe, F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex. Tel: +33-(0)3-8841-2136, +33(0)3-8841-2204, Fax: +33-(0)3-8841-3745, eMail jean.claus@coe.int

Copies of the Draft Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States to ensure the protection of the human rights and dignity of people with mental disorder, especially those placed as involuntary patients in a psychiatric establishment" should be demanded from the respective national Justice Ministries.


How did the "Draft Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States to ensure the protection of the human rights and dignity of people with mental disorder, especially those placed as involuntary patients in a psychiatric establishment" (former "White Paper") come about?

  • On 3. January 2000 the working group of the Steering Committee on Bioethics published the " 'White Paper' on Protecting the Human Rights and Human Dignity in the Field of Psychiatry – more especially those within Psychiatric Institutions."

  • This White Paper serves as a basis for discussion to lay down guidelines, which should be incorporated into new Legislation from the European Council.

  • Background: On April 12, 1994, The Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council adopted the Recommendation 1235 (1994) concerning Psychiatry and Human Rights, wherein the Ministerial Committee calls for the adoption of new recommendations. Thereupon the Ministerial Committee formed the new Working Group on Psychiatry and Human Rights (CDBI-PH) to operate under the authority of the Steering Committee on Bioethics (CDBI). How the demand for production of the White Paper to be produced by the Working Group came about is described in the beginning of the White Paper itself.

  • On 16. March 2000 the Secretariat of the Working Group on Psychiatry and Human Rights of the Directorate General, I – Legal Affairs sent the original version of the Paper – amongst others, to the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry with a request for comment.

  •  On the 14. August 2000 the German Federal ministry for Justice also sent the White Paper to "Interested Parties in the Area of Psychiatry and Human Rights", together with a working translation of the Paper in the German language, which had been produced in Austria.

  •  Deadline for submission of Comments to the respective Ministries was September/October 2000. (In the case of Germany: Bundesministerium der Justiz, Geschäftszeichen III B 2 - 9510/91-1-16, 11015 Berlin, Tel. 030-202570, Fax 030-20259525).

  • The aforementioned CDBI-PH examined suggestions and objections, which should be reflected in a the re-worked version, which went before the CDBI during the year 2001. Whereupon an approved version of the text will be submitted by the CDBI in the form of a proposed recommendation to the Ministerial Committee of the European Council for acceptance.

  • Current Development