As CIRP refined its policy positions on human rights and action in cases involving inappropriate ethical behavior, it joined other nongovernmental scientific bodies such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and international organizations, such as the World Federation for Mental Health.  CIRP has taken stands against apartheid in South Africa , abuses in Greek mental hospitals, and human rights violations by psychologists in the former USSR and in Chile.  

In the late 1908s, CIRP began taking an increasingly active stance.  As part of APA’s Centennial, with support from the APA Board of Directors, CIRP developed a program of International Psychology Initiatives (IPI) that is likely to continue for years to come.  It recognizes APA’s special responsibility as the largest organization of psychologists in the world, its unique resources for supporting international communication and exchanges, and its coming of age in a increasingly global village.

The IPI program builds on opportunities to work meaningfully with others.  For example, one of the first IPI activities was the organization in October 1991 of two workshops in Czechoslovakia on sexuality and AIDS education.  They were funded by the US National Institute of Health’s Fogarty International Center , and with additional support from the Sexuality and Family Planning Program of the World Health Organization European Regional Office and from APA.  US mental health professionals, assisted by translators, held productive workshops with Czech and Slovak counterparts and with representatives from the Ministry of Health that influenced the development of public health programs in the formerly socialist country.  The funds raised for this project alone exceeded the total seed money provided by the APA Board of Directors for all the CIRP International Psychology Initiatives.

In another major IPI endeavor, APA helped identify US psychology departments willing to waive tuition for academically qualified Black South African doctoral and masters level students.  Working with nonprofit Aurora Associations, supported by the US Agency for International Development, CIRP helped to place six Black South African students who are expected to return home after completing their graduate studies.  In a related initiative, CIRP made a grant for the continued development of mental health program in the Soweto-based Family Centre, the first of several facilities designed to address apartheid-created stress through a multifaceted educational, research, training and services network. 

In addition, CIRP initiated the development of a graduate student program and exchange visits with Russian psychologists; joined with the Pan American Health Organization, the Interamerican Society of Psychology, the International Union of Psychological Science and the World Federation for Mental Health in supporting the Interamerican Consortium for Psychology in Community Health Care; and continued its journal donations and international congress travel grant programs.  CIRP is also establishing stronger liaison with APA divisions in an endeavor to broaden the horizons of international psychology in scientific, professional, educational, and public interest spheres.  These activities have been further enhanced by the approval by the APA Board of Directors and Council of Representatives of an annual APA award for sustained contributions to the international advancement of psychology.

With current and past CIRP membership now exceeding 100, including a number of past APA presidents, there is good reason to believe that the voice of the international psychology will continue to be heard and heeded within APA.