About CCHR
What Is the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)?
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit mental health watchdog, responsible for helping to enact more than 180 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive practices.
CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Dr. Thomas Szasz at a time when patients were being warehoused in institutions and stripped of all constitutional, civil and human rights.
CCHR functions solely as a mental health watchdog, working alongside many medical professionals including doctors, scientists, nurses and those few psychiatrists who have taken a stance against the biological/drug model of “disease” that is continually promoted by the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry as a way to sell drugs. It is a non-political, non-religious, non-profit organisation dedicated solely to eradicating mental health abuse and enacting patient and consumer protections. CCHR’s Board of Advisers, called Commissioners, include doctors, scientists, psychologists, lawyers, legislators, educators, business professionals, artists and civil and human rights representatives.
People frequently ask if CCHR is of the opinion that no one should ever take psychiatric drugs, but this website is not dedicated to that opinion. It is dedicated to providing information that a multibillion dollar psycho/pharmaceutical industry does not want people to see or to know. The real question therefore is this: Do people have a right to have all the information about (A) the known risks of the drugs and/or treatment from unbiased, non-conflicted medical review, (B) the medical validity of the diagnosis for which drugs are being prescribed, (C) all non-drug options (essentially informed consent) and (D) the right to refuse any treatment they consider harmful.
CCHR has worked for more than 50 years for full informed consent in the field of mental health, and the right to all the information regarding psychiatric diagnoses and treatment, not just the information coming from those with a vested interest in keeping the public in the dark.
It is in this spirit that we present you with videos, blogs, news, medical experts and information designed to arm you with facts. As a non-profit organisation, it is through public donations that we are able to continue our educational campaigns.
Watch the introductory video about CCHR:
CCHR Africa was established in March 2025.
Executive Director: Marco Licciardello
WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT CCHR AFRICA?
South Africa has been heavily targeted by psychiatrists. In the last three years, there have been more than 200 congresses, events, meetings etc. in psychiatry! Much more than in all European countries put together.
Between 20% and 30% of the population is on psychiatric medication.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 27.
Children are their main target. In some schools, Ritalin is distributed free of charge…
They are destroying the best part of the next generation. This concerns us directly!
Back Home
In the 1970s, the Church of Scientology exposed psychiatric work camps in South Africa where Black individuals were exploited as slave labour, and compliance was enforced with electric shock. These abuses were investigated and confirmed by the World Health Organisation and the American Psychiatric Association.
CCHR later presented testimony to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, leading to a national government inquiry into psychiatric racism.
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