In Denmark, CCHR has a long history of exposing psychiatric abuses. In 1979, CCHR investigators discovered that in the 1960s, mind-control experiments using LSD had been conducted on some 60 people at Frederiksberg Hospital. As a result, the Danish government’s justice ombudsman initiated his own investigation, which in turn yielded a 75-page report strongly criticising psychiatry. It ordered that all victims of mind-control experiments be compensated for the harm suffered.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe had, in 1994, recommended that proposals to strengthen the rights of psychiatric patients be implemented by the governments of all thirty-two Council of Europe member states—a significant recognition that human rights violations in the mental health field had reached extreme levels. Indeed, for years, oppressive mental health laws had empowered Danish psychiatrists to force patients into treatment. In 1995, widespread alarm at the growing and arbitrary use of coercive psychiatry led CCHR to bring together a number of humanitarian organisations to voice their concerns in a public forum. CCHR Denmark subsequently investigated, documented and exposed crimes in psychiatric institutions, including the use of forced drugging and other coercive treatments that, in cases on record, resulted in patient deaths. Submissions calling for the investigation of psychiatry in Denmark were made to various judicial committees, health committees, the European Council and the prime minister of Denmark.

And then, in January 2003, the Danish National Health Board, due to work by CCHR and allied human rights groups, ordered that every instance of ECT use be monitored and reported to the Board.