Who We Are?

The Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry (FGIP) goes back to 1980 when it started as a volunteer human rights organization with the goal to end the incarceration of dissidents in psychiatric hospitals under the name International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry (IAPUP).

Over the years, the FGIP has developed a large network of contacts, allies and friends all around the word that are close to its cause to promote human and ethical mental health care for all. Thanks to this network of individuals from the health and from the legal profession, bureaucrats, national and international policy makers, opinion makers, donors and persons with lived experiences, the FGIP was able to stay a lean and highly flexible organization and to continuously adapt its identity and work to sustainably protect the rights of those living with mental health challenges, first in Central & Eastern Europe, and then globally. 

Today, 45 years later, the FGIP serves as umbrella organization for its independent member organizations , with its own focus and program. Each of its members are pursuing their own missions to bring ethical and humane mental health care to those who receive, and those who deliver.

The federation itself has placed the upholding of human rights in the mental health sector for underserved communities, such as victims of state repression (such as human rights defenders, activists) and war (civilians and the military) or people living in closed environments (such as prisons or detention centers) and their immediate surroundings in the center of its work. We fill the gap in areas and for people who have nobody else to stand up for their rights.