American Disabilities Act Must Protect Against Forced Psychiatric Commitment and Treatment

LOS ANGELES - Rezul -- By CCHR International

The mental health industry watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is calling for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to be expanded and modernized to align with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Such reforms are necessary to protect individuals from coercive psychiatric commitment and forced treatment in U.S. healthcare systems.

CCHR's call follows a formal CRPD Committee statement issued on January 15, 2026, urging the Council of Europe and governments "to move towards the end of the use of any form of coercion in the provision of mental health policies and services for persons with disabilities."[1]

The statement directly challenges the Council of Europe's proposed Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention ("Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being regarding the Application of Biology and Medicine"), which seeks to expand and legitimize involuntary psychiatric detention and treatment. If adopted, this protocol would represent a major rollback of human rights protections for individuals labeled with mental health conditions.

Although the CRPD was adopted in 2007 and inspired by U.S. leadership on disability rights, the United States has never ratified the treaty and has not updated the ADA to reflect its mental health human rights principles. While the ADA recognizes both physical and mental disabilities, its protections are largely limited to employment discrimination and public accommodations. It does not prevent forced psychiatric institutionalization or treatment.

CCHR warns that the CRPD Committee's guidance is highly relevant to the U.S., where involuntary psychiatric commitment and forced drugging continue under state mental health laws. As the committee explains: "Given the historical marginalization of persons with disabilities, it was necessary to articulate these rights and make it clear that restrictions or denials based on disability constitute human rights violations."

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The CRPD Committee further emphasizes: "Persons with disabilities experiencing individual crises should never be subjected to institutionalization. Individual crises should not be treated as a medical problem requiring forced treatment or as a social problem requiring State intervention...."

CCHR and its European chapters have actively opposed the Oviedo Protocol, arguing that it violates international human rights law by entrenching coercive psychiatric practices. The CRPD Committee is urging the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to withdraw the protocol at its January 26–28, 2026 session.

According to CCHR, this global development mirrors the situation in the United States, where forced psychiatric detention and treatment remain common and are associated with serious abuse and preventable deaths. The CRPD Committee's statement cites research showing that: "Involuntary commitment and coercive measures in most cases cause harm and even can cause death. There are no therapeutic benefits and studies show a lack of clear clinical evidence supporting their use." One cited study found that individuals subjected to involuntary commitment constitute a high-risk group for suicide, even compared to other psychiatric detainees.

These findings are reflected in the United States:

Each year, approximately 1.2 million Americans are involuntarily hospitalized for psychiatric reasons. A July 2025 U.S. study found that individuals released from involuntary psychiatric detention were nearly twice as likely to die by suicide or overdose within three months of release.[2] Children as young as six years old have been removed from schools and committed to behavioral health facilities, where they were reportedly drugged with antipsychotics.[3]

CCHR details abuse cases in its white paper, "Urgent Need for Federal and State Enforcement, Transparency, and Penalties in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric-Behavioral Facilities."

The CRPD Committee's statement makes clear that:

• Forced psychiatric detention violates the CRPD's protections of liberty, security of person, equal recognition before the law, and freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
• Arguments for forced treatment for "therapeutic purposes" can never override an individual's right to free and informed consent to, or refusal of, treatment.
• States must abolish laws and policies that permit forced psychiatric treatment and institutionalization based on disability.
• Reliance on "dangerousness" to involuntarily commit individuals is rejected. Matters of criminal behavior should be addressed through general criminal law and procedure, not psychiatric authority.
• Governments must replace coercive psychiatry with support-based, non-coercive models of care that respect personal autonomy and choice.

CCHR argues that the United States can and should implement these protections immediately through amendments to the ADA and corresponding state mental health reforms. The organization recommends that both state-run and privately owned psychiatric facilities be required to comply with non-coercion standards as a condition of receiving federal program funding.

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Without such reforms, Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International, says, the ADA fails to protect Americans with mental health disabilities from the very abuses the CRPD was designed to prevent.

About CCHR: In 1969, it was established by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry, Thomas Szasz, and has been responsible for hundreds of laws that provide protections from psychiatric abuse and informed consent rights.

Sources:

[1] "Statement of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: time for the Council of Europe to withdraw the draft Additional Protocol to the Convention for 'the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being regarding the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No 164),'" Committee CRPD, 15 Jan 2026, www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crpd/statements-declarations-and-observations

[2] www.cchrint.org/2025/11/14/study-involuntary-commitment-fails-to-prevent-suicide/; Natalia Emanuel, et al. "A Danger to Self and Others: Health and Criminal Consequences of Involuntary Hospitalization," Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1158, July 2025, www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr1158.pdf?sc_lang=en

[3] www.cchrint.org/2020/02/25/six-year-olds-ripped-from-schools/; "Florida: Police took a 6-year-old girl to a mental health facility because she was 'out of control' at school," The Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2020, www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/16/florida-police-took-a-6-year-old-girl-to-a-mental-health-facility-because-she-was-out-of-control-at-school/; "6-year-old committed to mental health facility without mother's consent," NBC News 2, 16 Feb. 2020