Forced medical treatment for people diagnosed with schizophrenia aims to modify so-called delusions, hallucinations and disordered thoughts. This intentional interference with mental functioning unequivocally abuses human rights because the right of all individuals to have their own thoughts, and to hold whatever beliefs they choose, is protected under international law. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states:
"1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.
3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others."[1]
The Article 18 rights that are most relevant to people who have undergone a mystical experience, and who are alleged to have schizophrenia, are the freedoms of thought, conscience and belief; the freedom to manifest belief; and the protection against coercion which would impair freedom of belief. The only limitations that are allowed to be placed on these rights are in respect to the manifestation of beliefs. The protection of thoughts and beliefs is particularly relevant to people who have undergone mystical experience, because it is unusual varieties of thought and belief that characterise the residual phenomena of mystical experience.
Article 2 of the ICCPR specifies that the Covenant protects the rights of all individuals ‘without distinction of any kind’.[2] This means there is no scope for making exceptions for supposedly ‘mentally ill’ people. This point is pivotal for an Article-18 defence of mystical experience, because such a defence only becomes necessary after a person has been labelled mentally ill by medical psychiatrists.
The rights protected in Article 18 of the ICCPR are so fundamental to the human experience that they have been restated as Article 1 of the more recently formulated UN Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.[3] Article 18 of the ICCPR and Article 1 of the Declaration are almost identical.
Next: The Spirit of Article 18
[1] United Nations, ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’, pp. 32–3.
[2] Ibid., p. 25.
[3] United Nations, ‘Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief’, pp. 35–36.