PAN American Health Org to Ban "Conversion Therapy"
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Days after a plan to ban so-called conversion “therapy” moved closer to the State Senate for a full vote, the Pan American Health Organization announced that the purported “cure” of gay people’s sexual orientation lacks any medical justification and should be subject to sanctions.By Reza GostarC
State Sen. Ted W. Lieu, whose district includes the Beach Cities and who presented the patient-protection plan approved by a policy committee earlier this month, commended the PAHO’s statement.
“These practices are unjustifiable and should be denounced and subject to sanctions and penalties under national legislation," said Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, PAHO director, in a statement. "These supposed conversion therapies constitute a violation of the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are protected by international and regional agreements."
After the approval of a new version of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, the World Health Assembly removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders 22 years ago on May 17.
Homosexuality is a natural variation of human sexuality and is not caused by mental disease, according to the PAHO. There have been no scientific studies that have demonstrated any ability to change an individual’s sexual orientation. On the other hand, there have been numerous testimonies about the serious harm to the mental and physical health of individuals that such so-called therapies can cause.
Furthermore, there have been a growing number of reports about degrading treatments, including physical and mental harassment under the guise of conversion "therapies," according to a statement from the PAHO.
In some cases, adolescents have been forced into interventions illicitly, “sometimes kept in isolation for several months,” according to the PAHO.
To address the problem, PAHO has made the following recommendations to governments, academic institutions, professional associations, the media and civil society:
- “Conversion” or “reparative” therapies and the clinics offering them should be denounced and subject to adequate sanctions.
- Public institutions responsible for training health professionals should include courses on human sexuality and sexual health in their curricula, with a focus on respect for diversity and the elimination of attitudes of pathologization, rejection, and hate toward non-heterosexual persons.
- Professional associations should disseminate documents and resolutions by national and international institutions and agencies that call for the de-psychopathologization of sexual diversity and the prevention of interventions aimed at changing sexual orientation.
- In the media, homophobia in any of its manifestations and expressed by any person should be exposed as a public health problem and a threat to human dignity and human rights.
- Civil society organizations can develop mechanisms of civil vigilance to detect violations of the human rights of non-heterosexual persons and report them to the relevant authorities. They can also help to identify and report people and institutions involved in the administration of “reparative” or “conversion therapies.”
- PAHO is more than 110 years old and one of the oldest public health organization in the world.
The organization works to improve the health and quality of life of people in the Americas and serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the WHO.
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