Citizens Commission on Human Rights Newsroom - Profile and News Archive

LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 5, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — With May being Mental Health Month, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is spotlighting a disturbing new study published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, titled “I Can’t Breathe” – A Study of Civil Litigated Cases on Prone Restraint Deaths. The review analyzed 229 fatal police restraint cases from 2010 to 2019. Of those where race was reported, 38% of the victims were African American.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 28, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a powerful new directive urging nations to eliminate coercive psychiatric practices, including forced hospitalization, drugging, and seclusion. The Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plans outlines a rights-based approach that marks a sharp departure from institutionalization and involuntary treatment. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a global mental health watchdog, has welcomed the guidance while warning that U.S. psychiatry remains dangerously out of step.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 21, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A recent exposé in The New York Times Magazine will send shockwaves through the psychiatric community, affirming what the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) has warned for decades: there is no medical proof that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a biological disorder.[1] Yet, over 3.4 million American children are labeled with ADHD and prescribed powerful, mind-altering stimulants.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 15, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a leading mental health industry watchdog, has released a damning report detailing how psychiatry is blaming patients-rather than failed treatments-to justify a surge in brain stimulation interventions. “When psychiatric drugs and therapy don’t work, psychiatry rarely blames the treatment-it blames the patient, saying they are ‘treatment-resistant,'” said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., April 7, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is sounding the alarm on the unchecked expansion of psychiatric diagnoses-most notably through the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). What began in 1952 with just 106 diagnoses exploded to over 300 by 2013, despite a lack of objective biological testing to support these labels. The United States is spending more than ever on mental health – yet outcomes continue to worsen.

ANAHEIM and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Dec. 12, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) toured more than a thousand visitors through the Psychiatry an Industry of Death Exhibit in Anaheim, California, as part of its nationwide tour. The exhibit reveals the history and extent of human rights abuse in the field of psychiatry, which continues unabated today.

SEATTLE, Wash., and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Dec. 4, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Dozens of protesters from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog founded in 1969 by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology, marched through Seattle, demanding an end to the widespread drugging of children in Washington state. They cited the dangers posed by psychotropic drugs, many of which carry black-box warnings due to the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, adolescents, and young adults.

MILAN, Italy, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Oct. 24, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Citizens Commission on Human Rights Italy (CCHR) demands an end to involuntary commitment and other human rights violations. Hundreds marched through the streets of Milan last month to the Milan Fiera City Convention Center, demanding that the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) annual congress implement the UN’s October 2023 mental health guidelines.

SEATTLE, Wash., and LOS ANGELES, Calif. Oct. 3, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A one-of-a-kind exhibit just completed the Seattle leg of its American tour in September. Displays and films of Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit document the results of 40 years of investigation into the psychiatric industry and its human rights abuses. They expose the devastating results of psychiatric drugging of children and the stark relationship between psychiatric drugs and mass shootings.

ATHENS, Greece, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 25, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Citizens Commission on Human Rights Greece brought the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit to Athens in September 2024. The exhibit exposed the truth about psychiatry, the dangers of so-called psychiatric treatments, the harmful medications they promote, and the threat to the human rights of those trapped in the system. The passage of a new mental health bill increased the urgency of educating the people of Greece to protect them from abuse.

OSAKA, Japan, Aug. 22, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A dramatic increase in the prescription of dangerous psychotropic drugs to Japanese children prompted Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Japan and a group of concerned holistic professionals to organize a daylong call to action at the Osaka International Convention Center. More than 1,000 attended the sessions and toured the “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit” to learn the cold, hard facts about psychiatry, its history, plans, practitioners, and the threat the industry poses to the country’s children and future.

EDINBURGH, Scotland, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., June 25, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The UN and World Health Organization issued mental health guidance in October 2023, but the Royal College of Psychiatry (RCPsych) has still failed to direct members to comply. They have not directed members to cease using ECT (electroconvulsive treatment) and have not demanded an end to involuntary commitment. Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) staged a march through Edinburgh and a protest at the RCPsych annual International Congress, demanding the organization immediately act to protect the human rights and health of the people of the UK.

CANBERRA, Australia, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 23, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Scores of protesters marched on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) Annual Congress in Canberra to demand it end its support of electroshock treatment, psychiatric restraints, forced drugging, and involuntary detainment. The protest was organized by Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology. CCHR demands a complete ban on coercive and dangerous psychiatric practices, citing their harmful effects on the vulnerable.

NEW YORK, N.Y., and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 11, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Those seeking help, beware, warns Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog. For Mental Health Awareness Month, the group marched through the streets of New York to raise awareness about coercive mental health practices including forced institutionalization and the use of electroshock (ECT) – even on children. Strategically timed to coincide with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual convention in the city, CCHR also brought its Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit to New York.

NEW YORK, N.Y., and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 8, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit,” open now through May 9 at 37 Union Square West in Manhattan, is not for the faint of heart. But it provides vital information to avoid or survive coercive psychiatric practices that infringe against human rights. The exhibit, produced by Citizens Commission on Human Rights, shows how these practices put health, safety – even life – at risk.

NEW YORK, N.Y. and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 7, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Midtown Manhattan reverberated with angry voices chanting “Stop the Torture-Ban ECT” as a phalanx of protesters from Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) made their way from Times Square to the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) at Jacob Javits Convention Center. Their demands: The American Psychiatric Association must end coercive practices.

BUDAPEST, Hungary, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 2, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — In the aftermath of the UN and World Health Organization guidance directing that psychiatry cease its coercive practices in the field of mental health, the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) Congress in Budapest in April 2024 attempted damage control. Their arrival sparked protest: a march and the launch of an exhibition to expose psychiatric violations, organized by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, the mental health watchdog founded in 1969 by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology.

DIEPSLOOT, South Africa, and LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 1, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Citizens Commission on Human Rights South Africa brought the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit to Diepsloot, a densely populated township in Gauteng, South Africa. The exhibit, held April 19 to 26, educated officials, business owners, members of African royalty and residents on human rights abuse, racism and harmful practices that pervade psychiatry, including its role in promoting racism.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 22, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — It’s no accident that while prescriptions for psychiatric medications have soared, the Los Angeles suicide rate has risen 40 percent since the year 2000 while the county’s mental health budget, at nearly $3 billion and rising, is the largest in the United States. Ever wonder why? The answer is not easy to confront. But Angelenos owe it to themselves and their families to visit the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) ‘Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Exhibit,’ which begins its global tour this week in Los Angeles with a grand opening on Friday, March 22 at 1:30 p.m.