October 22nd, 2013 -- Washington, DC -- The New York Times today published an article profiling the Colectivo Chuhcan, Mexico's first human rights advocacy organization led by persons with psychiatric disabilities. Disability Rights International (DRI) established the Colectivo in 2011 and helped the group spin off as an independent human rights organization. Today's New York Times article, Ex-Patients Police Mexico's Mental Health System, reports that Colectivo members are pushing "to hold the mental health system in Mexico accountable for a record of neglect and abuse that is considered among the worst in the Americas." In 2010, DRI released Abandoned and Disappeared, a human rights report detailing the torture, trafficking, and cruel and inhuman treatment that is commonplace within Mexico's decrepit psychiatric facilities. DRI has trained members of the Colectivo to continue human rights monitoring within Mexico's hospitals. The sustained pressure has led to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto promising to reform the mental health system.
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