LGBT individuals in China are being subjected to abuses in the form of “conversion therapy,” according to a report [text] released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website].

According to HRW, public hospitals and private clinics are utilizing so-called “conversion therapy,” regarding LGBT individuals’ identity as a disorder.

In 2001, the Chinese Society of Psychiatry [official website] removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Prior to that, in 1997, the Criminal Code decriminalized homosexuality in China, and the use of conversion therapy is prohibited by law. However, authorities and medical associations are doing nothing to prevent the abuses, according to HRW.

According to the report, hospitals and clinics are using methods such as coercion, threats, physical abduction, arbitrary confinement, forced medication and injection, and electroshock therapy. HRW says these practices violate domestic and international standards as well as human rights. In July a Chinese court ordered [JURIST report] a mental hospital to issue a public apology a pay compensation to a man after forcing him to undergo conversion therapy.

HRW urges Chinese authorities to implement measures to prevent hospitals and clinics from treating homosexuality as a mental disorder by issuing clear guidelines that conversion therapy contradicts law, monitoring medical facilities, and taking disciplinary actions against facilities conducting conversion therapy.