Press release
Hamburg, 8.8.1999
Deceptive rhetoric of the WPA
The ridiculous side of the WPA Congress
On the 27.7.99 the WPA officially invited Mr.Hagai Aviel, chairperson of the Israeli Association Against Psychiatric Assault to participate in its proposed symposium on the "role of psychiatry in human rights issues". When Mr. Aviel asked on how he could enter the symposium, the WPA directed him to the registration counter. There he was told that in order to participate in the symposium, having an invitation or not, he had to pay registration fees, since the symposium organizers seern to have forgotten to take care of this minor detail.
Mr. Aviel declined to pay for his invitation and later on, when trying to enter the symposium without a fee, he was promptly refused entry.
As far as we know, neither "the European net of (ex) users and survivors", the "BPE", the "SCI", nor any other human rights organization of psychiatric survivors has been invited to participate.
This leaves us wondering who - except the psychiatrists - did participate in the symposium on the "role of psychiatry in human rights issues"?
In case you would like to contact us today at our countercongress: Tel. 0177-2244640