MENTAL HEALTH DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
by
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights

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6. The right to have all the side effects of any offered treatment made clear and understandable to the patient, in written form and in the patient's native language.

7. The right to accept or refuse treatment but in particular, the right to refuse sterilisation, electroshock treatment, insulin shock, lobotomy (or any other psychosurgical brain operation), aversion therapy, narcotherapy, deep sleep therapy and any drugs producing unwanted side effects.

8. The right to make official complaints, without reprisal, to an independent board which is composed of non-psychiatric personnel, lawyers and lay people. Complaints may encompass any torturous, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment received while under psychiatric care.

9. The right to have private counsel with a legal advisor and to take legal action.

10. The right to discharge oneself at any time and to be discharged without restriction, having committed no offence.

11. The right to manage one's own property and affairs with a legal advisor, if necessary, or if deemed incompetent by a court of law, to have a State appointed executor to manage such until one is adjudicated competent. Such executor is accountable to the patient's next of kin, or legal advisor or guardian.

12. The right to see and possess one's hospital records and to take legal action with regard to any false information contained therein which may be damaging to one's reputation.

13. The right to take criminal action, with the full assistance of law enforcement agents, against any psychiatrist, psychologist or hospital staff for any abuse, false imprisonment, assault from treatment, sexual abuse or rape, or any violation of mental health or other law. And the right to a mental health law that does not indemnify or modify the penalties for criminal, abusive or negligent treatment of patients committed by any psychiatrist, psychologist or hospital staff.

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