NCJ Number
126649
Journal
Criminal Law Forum Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: (Winter 1990) Pages: 319-346
Date Published
1990
Length
28 pages
Annotation
In the spring of 1989, the Soviet government allowed an official delegation of psychiatrists and forensic experts from the U.S. to interview patients who were believed to have been hospitalized for political reasons.
Abstract
The emphasis of the delegation was on the political abuse of psychiatry. The repression of dissidents is only the most visible manifestation of a system of psychiatric control that has been, and continues to be, profoundly insensitive to human rights. Although some tentative steps have been taken to subject coercive psychiatry to the rule of law, these limited initiatives have not yet become operational. Legal reforms recommended by the delegation include tolerance for dissent, increased professional independence, and respect for the rule of law. Implementation of these legal reforms would help to reduce the likelihood that the pattern of psychiatric repression will reemerge. But the proposed reforms have a larger purpose -- to assure that the practice of psychiatry in the Soviet Union is properly respectful of fundamental human rights, whether or not the patients have engaged in political or religious dissent. 78 notes