Documents human rights violations perpetrated against approximately 25,000 people detained in Argentina’s psychiatric institutions. More than 80 percent of these people are detained for more than a year— and many are detained for life. Two-thirds of all psychiatric beds are part of the public health system.

MDRI and APRODEH find a number of serious human rights violations against people with mental disabilities, including: inhuman and degrading treatment in institutions; discrimination in the provision of health and social services; failure to ensure informed consent; and violations of the right to community integration, among others.

This report by the Mental Disability Rights International project of the American University Human Rights Center on the treatment of the mentally disabled in Uruguay is a major step in that direction. It documents the combination of neglect, indifference and outright cruelty that is perpetrated on these helpless people in one country, and it charts a strategy for change that takes into account the economic and social situation in that country.