Exposing Psychiatric Abuse, CCHR Has Pushed for Global Human Rights Protections
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LOS ANGELES - PrAtlas -- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, is reaffirming its legacy of restoring human rights in the mental health field—one that spans more than five decades of exposing psychiatric coercion and abuse, helping drive legal and policy change. With nearly 200 laws influenced through its work, CCHR's campaigns have led to landmark bans on dangerous practices such as electroshock treatment on children, Deep Sleep Therapy (DST), and other coercive procedures now denounced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations agencies.

From the first U.S. law in California in 1976 banning electroshock and psychosurgery on children under 12 and banning it for minors under age 14 in Western Australia with criminal penalties if administered, to outlaw DST in Australia with criminal penalties for violators, CCHR's work has helped shape the global mental health landscape—often in the face of intense opposition.

"Many of the reforms we fought for were achieved despite industry resistance to challenging psychiatric coercion and power," said Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International. "That legacy continues today, recognized by survivors, lawmakers, health agencies, and UN experts worldwide."

In the late 1970s, CCHR helped expose the deaths of 48 patients subjected to Deep Sleep Therapy at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. The practice involved drug-induced comas and repeated electroshock. Most patients were never told they had been shocked, and no informed consent was obtained.

After a 10-year campaign by CCHR and DST survivors, a Royal Commission of Inquiry confirmed the practice was abusive and medically indefensible. In 1983, DST was banned under the NSW Mental Health Act, with criminal penalties imposed for its administration. Justice John Slattery, who led the inquiry, determined that electroshock without consent or by deception is "an assault."[1]

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He credited CCHR for making the investigation possible, stating the group had "contributed considerably to advance the cause of the Chelmsford patients."[2]

An award-winning 60 Minutes Australia program was credited to CCHR for the documents that made its landmark exposé possible.[3] Prominent attorney Patrick Griffin called CCHR's work "the most sustained and thorough exercise in whistleblowing, investigatory reporting and public interest work in the history of this country—bar none."

In 1986, a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights stated: "CCHR has been responsible for many great reforms… Laws throughout the world which would otherwise have inhibited even more the rights of patients or would have given psychiatry the power to commit minority groups and individuals against their will, have been defeated by the actions of CCHR."[4]

Since then, nearly 200 laws have been passed worldwide as a result of CCHR's advocacy. These include:

• Texas banning electroshock on children under 16.
• The Australian Capital Territory prohibiting ECT for children under 12.[5]  
• South Australia enforcing up to four years' imprisonment for illegal ECT administration.[6]

Independently, in 2024, the California Supreme Court ruled that an ECT device manufacturer must warn doctors of the risks of brain damage and permanent memory loss[7]—a position long advocated by CCHR.

CCHR's investigations into Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in New Zealand in the 1970s helped expose the electroshocking of children—many of them Māori—without anesthetic, often to their heads, limbs, or genitals. The abuses included sexual assault, forced drugging, and prolonged isolation.

A 2022 New Zealand Royal Commission cited CCHR's contributions, noting:

"CCHR has remained involved in advocating for survivors...since 1976." In 2024, the government formally acknowledged the torture of children at Lake Alice. One survivor, Bruce Harkness, called CCHR "true champions." CCHR NZ was awarded the 2025 Mitre 10-Kiwibank New Zealand Community of the Year honor. Victor Boyd, who led early inspections of Lake Alice, was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, an award endorsed by King Charles III.

The WHO and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a joint report in 2023 echoing CCHR's early positions, stating that ECT without consent may constitute torture and should be legislatively banned for children.

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In May 2025, a statement by the Vice Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who helped open a CCHR exhibition in Los Angeles, declared: "Involuntary medication, electroshock, even sterilization—these are inhuman practices... they constitute torture."

CCHR's co-founder, Dr. Thomas Szasz (1920–2012), was a renowned psychiatrist who called for the abolition of coercive psychiatry. In his own words: "CCHR…is really the only organization that for the first time in human history has organized a politically, socially, internationally significant voice to combat psychiatry." When asked how to stop psychiatric abuse, Szasz replied: "We, ourselves. The pillar…must rest on an informed public." That principle continues to guide CCHR today.

Eastgate says criticism of those calling for an end to coercive psychiatric practices is self-serving, an attempt to rewrite history to deflect from those who have fought tenaciously for decades to help achieve what is now a growing international condemnation of psychiatric abuses. "CCHR's work aligns with the world's most respected health and human rights agencies, and it will continue to fight for patients' rights and justice, despite industry resistance."

CCHR was co-founded by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Szasz and has secured informed consent laws and government inquiries into psychiatric abuse around the world for 56 years.

Sources:

[1] The Hon. Mr. Acting Justice, J.P. Slattery, A.O., "Report of the Royal Commission Into Deep Sleep Therapy," NSW Royal Commission, Vol. 6, Dec. 1990, p. 96

[2] New South Wales Royal Commission into Deep Sleep Therapy, Vol 8, p. 479, Dec.1990

[3] www.cchrint.org/2020/12/01/survivors-of-lethal-drug-shock-deep-sleep-therapy-vindicated-after-30-years/

[4] Erica-Irene Daes, Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Commission, Principles, Guidelines and Guarantees for the Protection of Persons Detained on Grounds of Mental Ill-Health or Suffering from Mental Disorder, 1986

[5] Geraden Cann "Thousands of Australians are receiving ECT without consent every year," ABC News, 8 June 2025, www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-09/electroconvulsive-therapy-consent-depression/105302318; Australian Capital Territory Mental Health Act 2015, classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_act/mha2015128/s157.html

[6] South Australian Mental Health Act, 2009, ECT section, p. 35

[7] www.wisnerbaum.com/blog/2024/june/wisner-baum-prevails-in-landmark-win-for-patient/