The Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities to Access Mental Health Care and Their Human Rights Conditions in Psychiatric Facilities in Ethiopia

Debebe, Aytenew (2013) The Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities to Access Mental Health Care and Their Human Rights Conditions in Psychiatric Facilities in Ethiopia. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

The standardization and undertakings for recognition and respect of human rights dates back to 1948 with the adoption of the UDHR. The understanding towards the universality of human rights is reached relatively later at the third World Human Rights Conference in Vienna in 1993. Despite this, until recently, little attention has been afforded to addressing the serious human rights violations suffered by PWDs. In response to the long reigned neglect and the advocacy works by different caucus of the disabilities movement, in 2006, a separate Convention was agreed at the UN level, the CRPD, which culminated the efforts of many stakeholders to bring about a new dawn for PWDs. PWMDs are among this group of people who are vulnerable groups and have been victims of human rights violations based on their disabilities. The grossly inadequate budget allocated to mental health compared to the burden it caused on the global burden of disease and disability evidences how these group of people are forgotten globally and at a national level. This has far reaching implications on their human rights. The institutions extending care for PWMDs have been places of perpetration of various human rights violations. In the above respect, Ethiopia is not a different country. With 15-17% of the total burden of diseases is caused by mental illness, it is seriously a concern to allocate an insignificant budget to the field. This is exacerbated due to the lack of neither any mental health law nor a policy for the protection of the rights of PWMDs, either any body to safeguard their conditions in psychiatric facilities. These people are thus suffering from various forms of human rights violations behind closed doors in addition to the lack of access to mental health services. This study is therefore an effort to show the right of PWMDs to access mental health services and to show the human rights implications of the situation, in Ethiopia on the rights of PWMDs. Moreover, the human rights conditions at the psychiatric settings are also addressed in this study.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Kabiru Wallace Ndung'u
Date Deposited:	17 Jun 2019 12:49
Last Modified:	17 Jun 2019 12:49
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/9310

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