Accra, Jan 26, GNA – Civil Society Organizations have commenced a consultative meeting on the Fourth Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process to draft a shadow report on Ghana’s human rights situation on persons with Psychosocial Disability.
The engagement which would discuss mental health, human rights and psychosocial disabilities, aims to improve the assessment and increase in recommendations of Ghana’s compliance to human rights obligations on psychosocial disabilities.
MindFreedom Ghana, a pro-mental health organisation, is facilitating the consultative meeting process in a project titled: “Institutional Strengthening and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Mechanism.’
Giving an overview of the project, Mr Dan Taylor, Executive Secretary of MindFreedom Ghana, the engagement seeks to increase the participation of psychosocial disability organisations in assessing and reporting on the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities in the UPR.
It would also promote media awareness on the number of recommendations on and advocacy for improving human rights for persons with psychosocial disabilities.
He said the meetings would help create a platform for broader consultations leading to the drafting and submission of a Non-governmental organisation joint shadow report.
He said, “This draft joint shadow report will contribute to a UPR assessment report on Ghana in the second quarter of 2022.
“The project is expected to create the opportunity for psychosocial disability organizations to access and interact with the United National Human Rights system vis-a-vis the UPR mechanism,” he added.
Mr Brandford K. Tay, Project Manager, Kekeli Ghana told the Ghana News Agency that inadequate and shortage of essential medicines for persons with psychosocial disorders posed a serious risk to users as they could go into relapse and cause severe conditions.
“In reality, the effects of no-drugs for persons with psychosocial disabilities is the relapse. It affects the person so much that, without the drugs he or she could easily go back to a bad state,” he added.
Mostly, he also said the medicines could not be found in the public health facilities, but when prescriptions are given they could easily be procured outside at exorbitant prices.
“From the district health facilities, anytime that our clients get to the public mental health centres they are not given the drugs. But most of the times when they’re given prescriptions to go outside, they easily get but they are very expensive.”
Mrs Levlyn Konadua Asiedu, Project officer, hope for the future generation, the critical challenge facing persons with psychosocial disorders had to do with stigma and discrimination as derogatory words are used against them.
She called on the public to use positive language, and respect the human rights of mental health patients. Also, they should be removed from the streets into the mental health system for treatment and reintegration into society.
“Our recommendation is that people with mental health disorders should be removed from the streets and treated to rejoin their families.”
At the end of the zone one meeting that included Greater Accra, Volta, Eastern and Oti Regions, participants listed priority areas, for consideration in the UPR report, which included; inadequate Psychotropic medications and no inclusive education for persons with psychosocial disabilities.
The UPR is a process organized every four years for all the 194 United Nations Member States to review the human rights situations of each country.
Ghana’s Human Rights record has been reviewed three times by the Human Rights Council in 2008, 2012 and 2017.
GNA