MENTAL ILLNESS, STIGMA AND DISABILITY RIGHTS IN GHANA

Abstract

Ghana has recently received much attention for human rights abuses against persons with mental illnesses in traditional ‘fetish’ and Christian prayer camps. Evidence has surfaced of Ghanaians with mental illnesses being forced against their will to attend the camps only to be physically abused, forcibly isolated and even chained to trees. Not only do these practices reveal a high level of stigma, but they also contravene the spirit and intention of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Despite the fact that Ghana has ratified in the CRPD and passed a new Mental Health Act in 2012, there has been little reaction in the country towards the harsh treatment of patients with mental illnesses at the camps. Lately, however, Ghanaian disability activists have started to take up their cause, protesting the camps as sites of human rights abuses. Starting with the example of one of these activists, also a camp survivor, the article investigates the potential of a human rights framework as a tool for improving the delivery of mental health services in Ghana.