A CRISIS POINT IN CHILD DRUGGING
UN Responds to CCHR Reports of Worldwide Abuse
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC), a body of 18 independent experts that meet in Geneva, Switzerland to monitor implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is looking into the psychiatric drugging of children in its member states.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has submitted a number of investigative reports to the UNCRC into the prescribing of psychopharmaceutical drugs coupled with insufficient medical attention to actual causes of emotional difficulties children experience in life. CCHR has submitted their findings of 11 countries to the UNCRC—Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Holland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.
CCHR Canada launched an investigation into child drugging as statistics showed alarming trends:
1) Canada is the third-largest per capita consumer of stimulants such as Ritalin and Concerta 2) more than 2 million prescriptions for stimulants were written for those aged 16 and younger in a single year, and 3) 35% of post-secondary students in Canada abuse the stimulants Ritalin and Adderall.
Citing Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, that “the best interest of the child shall be the paramount consideration,” CCHR Canada documented in its submission to the UNCRC the increasing number of complaints from parents reporting children being fraudulently diagnosed as having “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD) and prescribed dangerous mind-altering drugs. One case reported by CCHR was of a mother of three who was told to have her son tested for ADHD due to potential “genetic” relationships, yet based on no scientific evidence whatsoever. Instead, the mother took the child for a medical checkup and found he was anemic. With his anemia treated, the “ADHD symptoms” lessened and he immediately did better in school.
Another case in CCHR’s report to the UN body: A 6-year-old boy was diagnosed with ADHD and his mother was told to give him Ritalin. When she read the possible side effects of Ritalin, she obtained medical advice to try him on a vitamin and nutrition regimen. Within three weeks, the child’s behavior had improved dramatically, with the boy’s teacher writing to the mother commenting on the remarkable change. CCHR recommended stronger informed consent rights for parents to protect children against the dangers of psychotropic drugs.
The UNCRC issued its report on Canada and expressed concern over “the increasingly high rates of children diagnosed with behavioral problems and the overmedication of children without expressly examining root causes or providing parents and children with alternative support and therapy.” It also noted that “educational resources and funding systems for practitioners are geared toward a ‘quick fix’.” The UN body strongly recommended establishment of a system for the “monitoring of the excessive use of psycho stimulants to children” and for taking action to understand the root causes.
CCHR’s report to the UNCRC on the drugging of children in Germany included the stunning fact that more than 300,000 children in that nation are prescribed psychopharmaceutical drugs. Many of these children are in foster homes and drugged against the parents’ wishes.
The report included CCHR Germany’s use of the Freedom of Information Act to obtain statistics which found the following: In just the past two decades, the use of psychostimulants has risen exponentially. They also discovered many cases of police officers forcibly and without cause removing children from their parents and their homes and placing them in psychiatric-based foster care facilities where they were given psychiatric drugs. From these cases, CCHR published “German Children Increasingly at Risk Due to Psychiatric Misdiagnosis and Drugging.” This white paper, along with a special German edition of the documentary Appearances Are Deceiving: An Insight into Psychiatry, was distributed throughout government, media, academia and religious communities.
CCHR Germany’s detailed complaint to the UNCRC on escalating child drugging was sent to each of the 18 members of the UN Committee. In the strongest stance taken by the United Nations against child labeling, the UNCRC recommended that the German government “Put a stop to the practice of labeling of children as having a psychiatric problem, in cases that are not validated by medical evidence.”
Following publication of the UN report, the German drug regulatory agency issued a press release stating that in 2013—for the first time in 20 years—the prescription of psychostimulants had dropped.
FACTS
Child Drugging
- More than 2 million children in the United States are on antidepressants.
- More than 4 million children in the United States are on stimulants.
- Some 20 million children worldwide are prescribed psychiatric drugs so dangerous that agencies in Europe, Australia and the U.S. have issued warnings about their serious adverse effects.
RESTORE HUMAN RIGHTS TO MENTAL HEALTH
As a nonprofit mental health watchdog, CCHR relies on memberships and donations to carry out its mission to eradicate psychiatric violations of human rights and clean up the field of mental health. To become part of the world’s largest movement for mental health reform, join the group that has helped enact more than 170 laws protecting citizens from abusive mental health practices.
