The United Nations Committee for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has issued a powerful Open Letter reiterating its opposition to involuntary detention and treatment in mental health systems. The Committee warned that any form of coercion, including involuntary placement and treatment, is incompatible with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This stance has been welcomed by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), which now calls for similar protections in U.S. law.
CCHR's International President, Jan Eastgate, noted that the CRPD, adopted in 2007 and heavily influenced by U.S. disability-rights principles, has never been ratified by the United States. Instead, the U.S. relies on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which Eastgate argues should be reformed to explicitly protect against forced psychiatric institutionalization and treatment—protections already guaranteed under international law.
The CRPD Committee's Open Letter makes several key points: involuntary placement and treatment are prohibited without exceptions, even as measures of last resort; they perpetuate institutional power imbalances that have been documented to expose persons with disabilities to torture and ill-treatment; evidence shows widespread violence, harm, and death caused by involuntary commitment and treatment, with no therapeutic benefits; and such practices are discriminatory measures that deny legal capacity and may amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
The European Times reported that the CRPD "prohibits involuntary placement and involuntary treatment of persons with disabilities on the basis of disability, without exceptions." This aligns with the human rights model of disability, which rejects coercion in mental health services.
CCHR emphasizes the urgency of adopting these human rights perspectives in the United States, where 1.2 million Americans are involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities each year. The consequences of coercion can be lethal: a July 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of New York study found that individuals 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 involuntarily, despite documented risks of memory loss and brain damage.
A new evaluation of court-mandated mental health treatment under New York's "Kendra's Law" compared outcomes of forced outpatient treatment with voluntary services and found that forced treatment was more harmful when mandated. Between 2016 and 2022, there was a 141% increase in the use of pharmacologic restraint among hospitalized children ages 5-17 with a mental health diagnosis, according to a study in Pediatrics. Physical restraints also cause serious injury or death, as seen in recent cases where a 7-year-old and a 16-year-old died during restraint, leading to homicide rulings and prosecution of staff.
The 2023 joint WHO-Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights guidance, Mental health, human rights and legislation: guidance and practice, also called for legislative reform to end coercion in mental health services and replace psychiatric institutions with inclusive community support systems.
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."
