Armenian Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, in a statement released today, said he was worried about the increasing number of people who are involuntarily being subject to psychiatric treatment in the country.

“Cases of involuntary treatment of people in psychiatric hospitals, which have become chronic, remain a matter of great concern,” Tatoyan wrote, claiming that consent to psychiatric treatment is “formal” and that people are deprived of their liberty with gross violations of their rights.

Tatoyan said that courts are ordering such treatment based on insufficient grounds.

He noted the example of the Armash Health Center where management had filed a motion for 19 people in two groups to start involuntary treatment, seven of whom had not yet received court rulings at the time.