In 2012, the Pan American Health Organization (the North and South American branch of the World Health Organization) released a statement cautioning against services that purport to "cure" people with non-heterosexual sexual orientations as they lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people, and noted that the global scientific and professional consensus is that homosexuality is a normal and natural variation of human sexuality and cannot be regarded as a pathological condition. The Pan American Health Organization further called on governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to expose these practices and to promote respect for diversity. The World Health Organization affiliate further noted that gay minors have sometimes been forced to attend these "therapies" involuntarily, being deprived of their liberty and sometimes kept in isolation for several months, and that these findings were reported by several United Nations bodies. Additionally, the Pan American Health Organization recommended that such practices be denounced and subject to sanctions and penalties under national legislation, as they constitute a violation of the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are protected by international and regional agreements. The development of theoretical models of sexual orientation in countries outside the United States that have established mental health professions often follows the history within the U.S. (although often at a slower pace), shifting from pathological to non-pathological conceptions of homosexuality. Major medical and psychological bodies in Australia uniformly prohibit conversion therapy practices, with published statements having come from peak bodies representing psychologists, psychiatrists, and medical practitioners. In a statement issued jointly with the College of Psychiatrists, Royal Australasian College of Physicians President Catherine Yelland summarised the view of the Australian medical community: "[g]ay conversion therapy is unethical, harmful and not supported by medical evidence." The approaches taken by peak medical bodies is exemplified by the 2015 Australian Psychological Society Position Statement, which declares (emphasis in original) that the: The Position Statement supports this position by reference to the Society's Code of Ethics, which were adopted in 2007 and mandated as the Code of Ethics for Australian psychologists in 2010 by the Psychology Board of Australia. Under the Code, psychologists are required to "avoid discriminating unfairly against people on the basis of age, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, disability, or any other basis proscribed by law" and mandates that they The Position Statement explicitly states that this ethical "requirement not to discriminate and to respect clients' moral rights does not equate to a justification to treat homosexuality or bisexuality as a disorder requiring treatment," relying on the Code of Ethics' section on propriety: "psychologists only provide psychological services within the boundaries of their professional competence [which] includes but is not restricted to ... basing their service on established knowledge of the discipline and profession of psychology".