Involuntary hospitalization and the rights of mental patients in Croatia

In Croatia, a 1934 law still prescribes that all hospitals are obliged to inform the court of jurisdiction of the involuntary hospitalization of mental patients. The court, after conducting its own inquiry, has to decide whether the continued detention of the patient is justified or whether he or she should be discharged. In practice, however, this law is violated, because some psychiatrists are not aware of it and because others deliberately choose to ignore it, considering involuntary hospitalization to be an exclusively medical issue to be solved within the medical profession. From the point of view of the protection of the basic human rights of mental patients, especially their right to freedom, and in the interests of general legal certainty, the present situation is most unsatisfactory. This article analyses how this unacceptable practice came about and recommends how it should be changed.