Original CHRUSP Website Torture Testimonies

In solidarity with all victims, survivors and resisters

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June 26 is the International Day in Solidarity with Victims of Torture.

In May 2013, I [Tina, writing as CHRUSP blog post] asked survivors, resisters and allies (I consider that all who are alive are survivors, we remember the victims who did not survive psychiatric torture) to join me on June 26 in writing blogs and statements or conducting other activities in solidarity with all victims, survivors and resisters of psychiatric torture. Here is one of the notices posted by a colleague.

Tina Minkowitz has proposed that we use June 26 as a day to write blogs and statements on psychiatric torture. This can be done as a response to or reflection on the UN rapporteur on torture’s recommendations that forced psychiatric treatment of all kind be banned, or however you might think to raise awareness on the topic. “What is the value of naming nonconsensual interventions as torture,” Tina asks, “and what are the implications of doing so?”

The Special Rapporteur on Torture in March 2013 called for an absolute ban on nonconsensual psychiatric interventions, including restraint, solitary confinement, and nonconsensual administration of electroshock, psychosurgery and mind-altering drugs such as neuroleptics. He also urged repeal of legal provisions authorizing confinement and compulsory treatment in mental health settings, and said that detention on mental health grounds is unjustified. See the statement of the Special Rapporteur, his report, and the response by the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, along with a call to action by CHRUSP. Note that the statement revises certain inconsistent positions that were left in the report.

Here are the responses. Remember to breathe when reading these accounts, especially the personal stories.

Tina Minkowitz, “We Name It as Torture”

Faith Rhyne, “Trigger Warning: Why Is It So Hard to Think About Torture?”

Aubrey Ellen Shomo, “Remembering a Restraint”

Bhargavi Davar, “Commemorating Erwadi Victims of Torture”

Naomi Pinson, “Ark of Resistance, Ark of Healing” and

“Why Isn’t the Expression ‘Taught Helplessness’?Thoughts on Learned Helplessness”

Sarbani Mukherjee, “Nonconsensual Medical Intervention in Immigration Detention in the United States ”

Frank Blankenship (Lunatic Fringe blog), “Support for Victims of Psychiatric Torture”

Gerald D. Otis, “Synopsis of the Case of ‘Bill Tollufson’”

Ojore Lutalo, “New Jersey State Prison: Special Needs Unit: Resisting the Drug Therapy Chair”

“MindFreedom Ireland Opposes Forced Detention”