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5. Congress of the European
Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
(A joined congress of ENUSP and the World Network of Users and Survivors
of Psychiatry WNUSP):
"Networking for our Human Rights and Dignity".
July 17-21, 2004 in Vejle (Denmark), Idrætshøjskole
Translation into Dutch
| Finnish
| German
| Japanese
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Vejle Declaration[1]
JuIy 20, 2004
How we propose to deal with each other
In all organisations we should:
-
build a constructive, welcoming, friendly, attractive atmosphere,
respectful of all the opinions of others, not trying to decide what
is good for them and support each other in developing our individual
and creative capacities
-
underline the importance of transparency, good governance and responsibility
in financial matters
-
integrate minorities in a proactive way and combat any discrimination,
whether it is based on origin, gender, age, disability, economy,
religious or sexual orientation
-
be patient to each other, try to see the whole person behind the
label and emotional and physical problems and not to judge others
-
be careful in the election of representatives and consider their
experiences and prevent ourselves and our colleagues to burn out
and subsequently leave the organisation
-
appreciate the work of all people who honestly try to improve psychosocial
treatment as well as those who work to establish alternatives to
psychiatry and we resist any unilateral approach to the understanding
of mental health problems
-
respect the work of volunteers and recognize the need for paid
jobs as well as we are looking for allies, because we face a vast
and complex task
-
demand that psychosocial services are made for the users/clients/survivors/people
in recovery, under our influence and with respect to our equal rights
as citizens in a democratic society.
[1] The idea for such a declaration goes back to an idea
by Kalle Pehe, Germany, from 1999. Kalle Pehe could not attend at the Vejle
conference, because at this time he worked as teacher, and in his town the
summer holidays started one week after the conference. Participants of the
workshop No. 1 "Which ethical ground rules do we want to have in the
self-help movement?" (Facilitator: Peter
Lehmann, Germany), who together developed the Vejle Declaration, were
Olli Stålström (Finland), Olga Riabova & Yakov Kostrovsky
(both Russia), Jan Verhaegh (The Netherlands), Mari Yamamoto (Japan), Dominique
Laurent (France), David Bonde Henriksen (Denmark) and Peter
Lehmann. Later on Mary
Nettle (England) helped to optimize the English translation. |