197105
The Use of Psychiatric Institutions for the
Commitment of Political Dissenters
POSITION STATEMENT
Approved by the Board of Trustees, December 1971
Reaffirmed by the Board of Trustees, March 1994
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"Policy documents are approved by the APA Assembly and Board of Trustees… These are …position statements that define APA official policy on specific subjects…" -- APA Operations Manual. |
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The American Psychiatric Association firmly opposes the misuse of psychiatric facilities* for the detention of persons solely on the basis of their political dissent, no matter where it occurs.
*The committee interprets the word “facilities” to mean the totality of psychiatric knowledge, practice and institutions. At its meeting on April 29, 1972, the APA Board of Trustees passed the following resolutions:
1. That the President of the World Psychiatric Association be asked to circulate the above position statement to all national societies which are members of the WPA, requesting their endorsement of the principle expressed in the resolution;
2. That an appropriate international organization be urged to establish a properly staffed agency to formulate internationally acceptable standards and guidelines to safeguard involuntary hospitalization from political influences as far as possible, to receive complaints from any individual or appropriate national body alleging the enforced use of psychiatric facilities for political purposes, and to make investigations of such complaints.
NOTE: The above resolutions were prepared by the APA Ad Hoc Committee on the Use of Psychiatric Institutions for the Commitment of Political Dissenters.