Dr. Naasson Munyandamutsa, of Rwandese origin, was assigned as prize winner 2011 of the Prize of Geneva for Human Rights in Psychiatry. The prize was handed to him on 22 September 2011 during the closing session of the 15th World Congress of Psychiatry in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Prof. Mario Maj, WPA President (2008-2011) and Prof. Françoise Ferrero, President of the Foundation.

World Psychiatric Association General Assembly 2011 was held on 21 September Buenos Aires, Argentina, in conjunction with the 15th World Congress of Psychiatry (18-22 September 2011, Buenos Aires).

Dear Colleagues and Friends from around the world:
I am deeply honored and pleased for the confidence deposited on me by the WPA General Assembly...

This course was organized by the Association for the Improvement of Mental Health  (a Geneva based not-for-profit organization) and designed by Professor N. Sartorius. It was conducted in collaboration with the Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore.

Abuja, the serene and beautiful capital city of Nigeria, hosted this course, which was designed by Professor Norman Sartorius, under the auspices of the Association for the Improvement of Mental Health (AIMH), a Geneva-based, not-for-profit organization. This course, co-sponsored by the World Psychiatric Association, took place towards the end of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) regional meeting in Abuja (22- 24 October, 2009) and it was the third of its kind.

If somebody was to ask the participants of the Course on the Leadership and Professional Skills of Early Career Psychiatrists after having spent four days on Heybeliada, the best one of the princess islands off the coast of Istanbul, “What three things would you take to a desert island?”, I believe the answer would be a team of professors to learn from, a group of peers to interact with and a challenging agenda to work on.

The World Psychiatric Association, as part of its Action Plan 2008-2011, has launched a programme of research fellowships for early-career psychiatrists from low- or lower-middle income countries, in collaboration with internationally recognized Centers of Excellence in Psychiatry. Within this programme, the World Psychiatric Association is funding a one-year international mental health research fellowship in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.

The World Psychiatric Association, as part of its Action Plan 2008-2011, has launched a programme of research fellowships for early-career psychiatrists from low- or lower-middle income countries, in collaboration with internationally recognized Centers of Excellence in Psychiatry. Within this programme, the World Psychiatric Association is funding a research fellowship at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

The World Psychiatric Association, as part of its Action Plan 2008-2011, has launched a programme of research fellowships for early-career psychiatrists from low- or lower-middle income countries, in collaboration with internationally recognized Centers of Excellence in Psychiatry. Within this programme, the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA is funding a one-year research fellowship in the therapeutics of bipolar disorder.

The World Psychiatric Association, as part of its Action Plan 2008-2011, has launched a programme of research fellowships for early-career psychiatrists from low- or lower-middle income countries, in collaboration with internationally recognized Centers of Excellence in Psychiatry. Within this programme, the World Psychiatric Association is funding a research fellowship at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH, USA.

WPA President M. Maj established the Task Force on Best Practice in Working with Service Users and Carers in 2008, chaired by H. Herrman. The Task Force had the remit to create recommendations for the international mental health community on how to develop successful partnership working. The work began with a review of literature on service user and carer involvement and partnership. This set out a range of considerations for good practice, including choice of appropriate terminology, clarifying the partnership process and identifying and reducing barriers to partnership working.

The next WPA General Assembly will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 21, 2011. The list of candidates (i.e., individuals who received at least one valid nomination) for the positions open for election...

The first survey on the prevalence and correlates of mental disorders in the Iraq population, carried out by the Iraq Ministries of Health and Planning in collaboration with the World Health Organization, has been accepted to be published in World Psychiatry, the WPA official journal.

mhGAP Newsletter will be published by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO, twice a year.

The workshop will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia in June 2010. The course director is Michael Musalek of the Anton Proksch Institute.