The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has issued a forceful open letter reiterating its stance that involuntary detention and treatment in mental health settings are incompatible with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee warned that any form of coercion in mental health care, including involuntary placement and treatment, seclusion, and restraint, violates the human rights model of disability and may constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) welcomed the Committee's initiative and called for similar protections to be enshrined in U.S. law. Jan Eastgate, CCHR's International President, noted that although the United States played a significant role in shaping disability rights principles that influenced the CRPD, the nation has never ratified the treaty, citing the existing Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Eastgate argued that the ADA should be reformed to explicitly prohibit forced psychiatric institutionalization and treatment, aligning U.S. law with international human rights standards.
The CRPD Committee's open letter, as reported by The European Times, states that involuntary placement and treatment are prohibited without exceptions, even as last-resort measures or with safeguards. The Committee emphasized that such practices perpetuate institutional power imbalances, often leading to violence, harm, and even death. It also highlighted the lack of clinical evidence supporting the use of coercion, noting that no therapeutic benefits have been demonstrated.
CCHR stresses the urgency of addressing this issue in the United States, where approximately 1.2 million Americans are involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities each year. A July 2025 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that individuals who were involuntarily hospitalized were nearly twice as likely to die by suicide or overdose within three months of release. Additionally, an estimated 100,000 Americans receive electroshock treatment annually, often without consent, despite documented risks of memory loss and brain damage.
A new evaluation of New York's "Kendra's Law," which mandates outpatient mental health treatment, revealed that forced treatment was more harmful than voluntary services. The study, reported by Politico, compared outcomes of individuals under court orders with those receiving similar services voluntarily, finding that coercion led to worse outcomes.
Alarming trends in child psychiatric care have also been documented. Between 2016 and 2022, the use of pharmacologic restraint among hospitalized children aged 5–17 with mental health diagnoses increased by 141%, according to a study published in Pediatrics. Physical restraints have led to deaths, including the homicide rulings in cases of a 7-year-old and a 16-year-old, resulting in prosecutions of six staff members, as reported by CCHR.
International guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also calls for legislative reform to end coercion in mental health services and replace psychiatric institutions with community-based support systems that respect free and informed consent.
Eastgate concluded: "The United States can no longer claim leadership on disability rights while continuing to allow forced psychiatric detention and treatment. It is unmistakably clear that coercion has no place in the mental health field. U.S. law should be brought into full alignment with international human rights standards. Anything less abandons the very principles of liberty and equality that America champions."
CCHR, established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, has been instrumental in enacting hundreds of laws that empower patients with informed consent and legal representation against forced treatment.
