Laureates

The Geneva Prize for Human Rights in Psychiatry was created in Geneva in 1999 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The prize is intended to recognize a person, without restriction on gender, age or nationality, or a governmental or non-governmental organization, for distinguished achievement at national or international level promoting equity, humanity or excellence in psychiatric care, reducing ignorance about, and discrimination against psychiatric patients and encouraging the application of human rights and ethics in psychiatry.

The prize was awarded for the first time on 15 September 2000 to "Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry", an association based in the Netherlands, by an international jury presided over by Mr Robert Badinter, former French Minister of Justice.

The jury chose to award "Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry", not only for its past work in combating the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union and in some other countries, but also and most especially for its remarkable work of helping psychiatric patients and former victims of totalitarian psychiatry, and its avant-garde initiative of launching and coordinating the network of Reformers in Psychiatry established to improve the standards of mental health care in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and in the States previously composing the Soviet Union.

In 2002, the jury presided by Professor Pierre-François Unger, Minister of Health of the Canton of Geneva, recommended to split the Prize between between HH. Hospitalarias Sagrado Corazón de Jesús and Professor Roy M. McClelland, from Belfast (Northern Ireland). The first have established institutions on all continents, but specially in Latin America and Africa, to take care of women of mentally ill, women with out-of-marriage children whom they receive, listen to, treat and follow up in day centers and sheltered workshops.

The second laureate, Professor Roy McClelland was central to the effort to produce, in collaboration with European colleagues, guidelines relating to confidentiality and the conflict between public interest and the interest of the patient.

The prize was handed over to the laureates on 1 April 2003 on the occasion of an international congress organized in Geneva by the International Psychogeriatric Association.

The candidates for the 2005 prize were examined by a jury presided by Mrs Ruth Dreifuss, former President of the Swiss Confederation. The jury chose to award the prize to Dr Jorge Luis Pellegrini, from Argentina, who has been defending human rights in psychiatry throughout his life and has been himself the victim of the violation of these rights by the Argentinian military dictatorship. Dr Pellegrini engaged himself in the promotion of social psychiatry and the reform of traditional psychiatric institutions immediately after the completion of his medical training. His activities in favour of the schooling of handicapped children, of the social integration of indigenous populations of Patagonia, of the treatment and rehabilitation of people with alcohol-related problems, of the development of out-patient care and social rehabilitation for people with mental illness witness a coherent and innovative professional path. The governing idea of his engagement was the empowerment of patients and their families, as well as the fight against discrimination of any sort and programmes of training and information of the public. During the military dictatorship, Dr Pellegrini was excluded from University and subsequently from the hospital before being arrested, imprisoned, liberated and again imprisoned. During these years of political persecution, he continued his social engagement and also produced a book about a Mapuche Indian family which was later turned into a film raising awareness about the pleas of the Indian population in Argentina.

The prize was handed over to the laureate on the occasion of the XIII World Congress of Psychiatry held in Cairo, Egypt, in September 2005.

The jury was also impressed by three other programmes, each functioning in a different cultural and institutional environment, which were considered particularly worthy of distinction because of their exceptional engagement for the recognition of the fundamental rights of psychiatric patients. Each of them contribute to make the public opinion sensitive to the possibilities and needs of the mentally ill people and the jury recommended to the Foundation that these three programmes receive a special mention for their achievements. These programmes are the following :

In Albania, the "Marcela Programme", conceived and implemented by ASED (Association for Support of Childhood in Distress) created in Geneva by Jean-Luc and Maryam Nicollier, combines training, the establishment of infrastructures for living, working and transportation, information of the public and legislative reforms in order to ensure the care and social integration of mentally handicapped children. Faced with the heavy legacy of a near-prison system and with the economic and political difficulties of a society in transition , the " Marcela Programme" mobilizes the resources and good will of people dedicated to "supporting children in distress", in Albania as well as in Switzerland.

In Ivory Coast, the "St. Camille Association" of Lellis, created in Bouaké by Grégoire Ahongbonon, helps people excluded from society, among whom many are people with mental retardation and mental illness. Grégoire Ahongbonon works with exceptional commitment in villages and families in which people considered as incurable - or possessed by the devil - are chained and deprived of care. The provision of care and social and economic reintegration are accompanied by a constant effort to make communities and authorities aware of the situation of needs of the excluded people.

In India, in the Tamil Nadu State (Chennai), the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) brings together psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation specialists and nurses who offer in- and outpatient services to people suffering from schizophrenia. This nongovernmental organization also assembles and helps families of patients and the community in their fight against the stigmatization and discrimination of mentally ill people.

In 2008, the Prize was awarded to Dr Semyon Gluzman, from Kiev, Ukraine. The prize, the medal and the diploma, were handed over to Dr Gluzman in Prague, Czech Republic, on 25 September 2008, during the XIV World Congress of Psychiatry.

In his fight for human rights in psychiatry, Dr Gluzman distinguished himself by his exceptional courage and constancy both in the political field and during his medical and scientific career. His refusal to participate in the use of psychiatry against political dissidents as well as his denunciation of abuses in this field earned him a sentence of seven year of imprisonment in a work camp and three years of exile. Immediately upon his return to Ukraine, Dr Gluzman pursued his medical, scientific and social activities, working towards the reform of psychiatric treatments and the recognition the ethical principles that must govern them. He contributed to the modification of the Ukrainian legislation in this area. His book « On Soviet Totalitarian Psychiatry », published in 1989, remains a reference book on abuses of psychiatry.