Ghana’s 2017 ban on the shackling of people with psychosocial disabilities – or mental illness – has not stopped the practice, Human Rights Watch said today. The government has not adequately resourced enforcement mechanisms to monitor compliance by the faith-based centres where people are shackled and to assist those currently unlawfully detained.
Human Rights Watch visited two spiritual healing centres – known as “prayer camps” – in the Eastern Region of Ghana from 19 to 23 October and interviewed more than 30 people. They included people with psychosocial disabilities, prayer camp staff, mental health advocates, a mental health professional, and a senior government official. Human Rights Watch found ten people in the two camps held in chains against their will, amounting to indefinite detention and other ill-treatment.
“The Ghanaian government’s 2017 ban on shackling and promises to address this abuse have not put an end to the shackling of people with psychosocial disabilities,” said Elizabeth Kamundia, deputy disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to enforce the ban so that the chains come off and people are helped to improve their lives. One chained person is one too many.”
A Human Rights Watch researcher who arrived at the Mt. Horeb Prayer Centre in Mamfi overheard a staff member telling his colleagues to “clean up”. When Human Rights Watch later gained access to the facility, it found chains lying on the floor, but only one person was still shackled, a 19-year-old woman who had been shackled for two weeks in a dilapidated and poorly ventilated room. Another person at the facility said the woman was chained because staff did not want her to eat. Staff members told Human Rights Watch that fasting was the prescribed treatment for her condition and was necessary for her “liberation.
A man at the facility who was chained for two months after his arrival said, “This environment is not conducive to healing.
Another man said: “I want to go back to work and I want to get married. I want to live my life.
Those detained in the camp spoke of constant, gnawing hunger from inadequate food; some appeared emaciated. Some were held in cramped cells, while others had some freedom of movement in the so-called ‘VIP’ room. Others, who were considered to be in a more acute condition, were particularly emaciated and were kept in a small, windowless room called the ‘condemned’ room. Prophet Paul Kweku Nii Okai, the leader of the camp, told Human Rights Watch that prayer and fasting were his interventions for mental illness.
At the Pure Power Prayer Camp in Adeso, Human Rights Watch found nine people, including one woman, shackled with chains no longer than two feet around their ankles. They were forced to urinate and defecate in a small shared bucket. One man was chained under a tree.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, following his visit to Ghana in 2015, explicitly stated that shackling “clearly amounts to torture, even when committed by non-state actors in circumstances of which the state knows or ought to know”.
Dr Pinaman Appau, Chief Executive of the State Mental Health Authority, said: “We have trained the leaders of the prayer camps, but we also need to strengthen the mental health system at the community level. She said the government’s biggest challenge in tackling prayer camp abuse was a lack of funding.
Under Ghana’s 2012 Mental Health Act, people with psychosocial disabilities “shall not be subjected to torture, cruelty, forced labour or any other inhuman treatment”, including shackling. The Act requires the establishment of Visiting Committees in all 16 regions to carry out inspections and ensure that the rights of people with mental illness are protected, and a Mental Health Tribunal to provide redress.
Ten years later, only five regions have committees, and two of these have made only one monitoring visit each. The government claims that it has taken so long because of a lack of funding, although the Act requires the Minister of Finance to prescribe, through Parliament, the appropriate levy or tax to fund mental health care. Such a levy should be introduced as a matter of urgency.
Human Rights Watch witnessed a range of serious human rights violations in both camps, including denial of adequate food, unsanitary conditions and lack of hygiene, lack of access to medical care, deprivation of liberty, and denial of freedom of movement.
Families in Ghana often take people with real or perceived mental health problems to faith-based or traditional healers because of the widespread belief that a curse or witchcraft causes such disabilities and because their communities have limited, if any, mental health services.
Kweku Nii Okai of the Mt. Horeb camp said he believes people have psychosocial disabilities for various reasons, including ancestral curses, evil spirits, or having a family member who is or was a fetish priest or priestess, people who act as intermediaries between the spirits and people.
One man who has been in and out of Mount Horeb for over a decade said, “You can be brought here for many reasons. Smoking weed, having illicit sex with other men”.
Local non-governmental organisations, particularly those led by people with psychosocial disabilities, have been active in advocating for improved rights-based mental health services and monitoring of facilities in Ghana. The Mental Health Society of Ghana has trained the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association on a rights-based approach to mental health at the national level, so that the association can disseminate this information to its members.
MindFreedom Ghana led a coalition of mental health groups in drafting a report to be submitted to countries participating in the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of Ghana’s human rights record, which included recommendations on the need for mental health services in Ghana.
The government should take immediate steps to end shackling and other abuses in prayer camps, Human Rights Watch said. This should include providing adequate resources to the Visiting Committees and the Mental Health Tribunal to carry out their responsibilities, and investing in rights-respecting community mental health services.
The government should also ensure that people with psychosocial disabilities receive adequate support for housing, independent living, and vocational training. The government should provide training to traditional and faith-based healers and the general public to combat stigma and ensure that people can live with dignity in the community. Finally, the government should implement the levy required by the Mental Health Act 2012.
“The government of Ghana is allowing these camps to operate with minimal regulation and no repercussions for violating the rights of people with psychosocial disabilities,” said Kamundia. “The Visiting Committees and the Tribunal should be fully operational and adequately funded to ensure that people are unchained and can live freely.”
