Centre of Reflection and of Action Proposal on psychiatry, and on psychiatric internment
To date (July 2012), the CRPA is a national French organisation with 77 members, 52 of them users and survivors. CRPA is currently organising local chapters in every region of France in order to create a rapid and efficient intervention network.
Purpose:
1/ Structure and promote thinking, actions and practice in favour of fundamental rights, in particular based on the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe, concerning persons who are or who have been interned in psychiatric institutions without their consent and forcibly treated pursuant to French laws applicable in this field.
2/ Lead actions and provide information about abuse and arbitrary treatment in psychiatry, about the fight against forced internment and psychiatric treatment without consent and about the misuse of psychiatry.
3/ Fight discrimination against psychiatric patients or persons considered so.
4/ Advise and protect persons who are victims of psychiatric abuse and arbitrary treatment. To this aim, helping these persons formalize their complaints in order to bring them to justice.
Main activities:
Currently, the main activities consist in helping persons who are victims of psychiatric abuse to structure their case files and then to file them with French courts of law, as well as European courts of law.
A second big task consists of influencing and discussing laws on psychiatry before they are enacted or to amend them, or even repeal them if they do not respect basic human rights and the French Constitution.
Address: CRPA – 14 rue des Tapisseries – 75017 Paris, France
Phone: 33 147 630 562
E-mail: andre.bitton2@orange.fr
Website: http://psychiatrie.crpa.asso.fr/