DRW OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON IDPD 2014 LET’S INCLUDE CHILDREN AND WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES IN TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT

On the 3^rd of December, 2014, Zambia commemorated the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) just like any other country in the world. This year’s theme is “Sustainable Development: the Promise of Technology”. In Zambia, the theme focuses on children and women with disabilities. DRW is actively participating in all activities lined up for this day. We feel it is a responsibility and obligation to do so actively.

As we commemorate, the first question that arises before us is: where is the promise of technology when it comes to children and women with disabilities in Zambia? I see the clear promise, but I do not see the fulfillment of the promise. The second questions arise: “who promises and what have they done?” I also see the promising hand, but I do not see the hand in action. This is a concern especially that technology is a fast growing phenomenon among children.

In most homes, schools, recreation centres and streets one comes across children and youths moving around with different gadgets representing technology. This is because of the fast growing field of technology. We see computer games of all forms and shapes; different high-tech cell phones all over the place with children and youths; toys and other play machines in homes and early childhood education centres; lap tops carried around by children and youths; and other “make-life-easy” gadgets around. These technologies afford children and youths to easily access internet for valuable information; access the social media; communicate through Email; chat through different channels and enjoy teleconferencing. Children are having their physical, psychological, emotional and intellectual development being stimulated rapidly through the use of different computerized toys, games and quiz. Great for the children and youths without communication difficulties!

But, where are the children and youths with communication difficulties, especially those who are blind, deaf, deaf-blind and those with intellectual disabilities? I am sure they are not having access to the technological gadgets. This means they do not enjoy the stimulation other children without disabilities enjoy. Discrimination on the basis of disability? YES!

We recently received a complaint from deaf young man who said, “I receive a lot of phone calls from the mobile phone providers which I do not answer because I cannot speak and hear. They disturb me a lot”. Does this ring sense in us? Of course it should. Here is mobile phone provider who does business inquiries on how their services are through voice calling to their clients. The mobile phone providers do not even know or understand that some of the mobile phones are owned by persons who are deaf. They inconvenience the phone owners whose phone continues to ring without answering. What the deaf person sees is the flashing light on the phone and maybe sense the vibration. This is unfair/

Here again is the mobile phone provider send a bundle of promotion messages to a mobile phone that belongs to a person who is blind. It is inconveniencing. It does not even make sense. The mobile phone providers seem not to know this. If they know, then they ignore this.

People who are blind also receive many phone automated phone calls from some mobile phone providers promoting the music they have as ring tones or whatever they call them.

Technology is extended to the transport sector. Today, we have motor vehicles fitted with accessibility features that enable persons using wheelchairs easily get into the motor vehicles without being lifted or leaving their wheelchair. Such motor vehicles are spotted around Lusaka. I take this opportunity to say ‘thumbs-up’ to Kabulonga Boys Secondary School who has purchased an accessible bus for their students with disabilities. This is a good example which needs to be recognised. If this school can do it, what about the right corporate world? What about the public bus owners? What about the big duty bearer that should act as an example – the State?

The other technological thorn in the flesh is about the inaccessible Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). The banks seem to be comfortable with their services. They have forgotten about those who need accessibility features on their ATMs and online banking services. We are glad banks like ZANACO have taken steps to make some of their ATMs installed with speech for those who are blind.

We are aware that the Zambia ICT Authority (ZICTA) is trying to take steps through awareness creation. We are aware of the very good workshop they convened about three weeks ago. But what are the strict and practical compliance measures and steps they should undertake? ZICTA must bite! Nevertheless, we are excited that it is taking measures to bring to book mobile operators who are inconveniencing the public through their systems. We are yet to learn whether issues of disabilities are part of the actions ZICTA is taking. Apart from calling for ZICTA to bite, we say, ZICTA should put its commitment to promote technology for persons with disabilities down to impact on the lives of persons with disabilities.

Children and youths with disabilities must enjoy access to affordable technology on an equal basis with others. If nothing is done, the promise will remain a promise in eternity. Sustainable development will remain discriminatory!

Wamundila Waliuya,

DRW - PRESIDENT

December, 2014.

PETITION TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ZAMBIA BY CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

                        Zambia Association of Parents for Children with Disabilities

Youth Disability Equality Pressure Group

Submission to the Human Rights Commission

Petition

This petition is today, the 2^nd of December, 2014, submitted to the Human Rights Commission with a copy for the attention of the President of the Republic of Zambia. The petition is particularly submitted to the Human Rights Commission because it concerns different issues across all the rights of children with disabilities. It outlines the actual problems faced by children with disabilities; the effect of those problems and attempts to provide recommendations. The petition is brief and simple for the purpose of understanding by all categorise of children with disabilities.

The Youth Disability Equality Pressure Group is a wing of the Zambia Association of Parents of Children with Disabilities (ZAPCD). It was formed in the year 2013 after receiving training from ZAPCD through the technical support of Disability Rights Watch (DRW). The sole purpose of the Pressure Group is to promote and protect the rights of children and youths with disabilities through self-advocacy and self-representation with the support of the parent organisation (ZAPCD). The Pressure Group presents this petition after realizing the children and youths with disabilities still suffer discrimination in almost all sectors of national development.

Children and youths with disabilities face a lot of challenges when it comes to enjoying their rights on an equal basis with other children and youths.

1.    Education

Children and youths with disabilities face many challenges in education. Many children and youths with disabilities leave their families and homes as early as seven years to get to special boarding schools very far from their homes. This makes them remain detached from the families. The schools at which their brothers and sisters go to cannot accommodate them because of inaccessible buildings; inappropriate learning materials; negative attitudes; and teachers not trained to handle the needs of children and youths with disabilities. It seems the Ministry of Education and other people who make decisions are doing little about these challenges because we cannot feel what they are doing. Enrolment rates at primary school are lower than those of their peers without disabilities. If enrolled, children with disabilities remain excluded in the learning process or end up dropping out of school. Their progression rate to secondary school is also poor. At secondary school, children with visual impairments have got difficulties in taking up mathematics and other science subjects. Thus, have got limited opportunities to proceed to tertiary education where mathematics and science are prerequisite subjects.

Tertiary education is still a great difficulty especially at our Universities which are physically inaccessible and do not have adequate facilities to provide reasonable accommodation in the learning process. This is worse for youths who are deaf and deaf-blind. Children and youths with intellectual disabilities are completely excluded with no consideration at all.

2.    Health

Children and youths with disabilities have got some health problems which are related to their disabilities. For example problems that need physiotherapy; good nutrition; speech therapy; good sanitation and clean water and eye care. They also need sexual and reproductive health education. Most of these facilities are either completely not there or inappropriate for children and youths with disabilities. In our schools, sanitation is pathetic and does not allow children and youths with disabilities access the toilets freely and independently and without losing the respect for their privacy and inherent dignity. Education materials on sexual and reproductive are not available in accessible formats and communication modes, especially for those with visual, hearing and intellectual disabilities. This includes materials on HIV/AIDS. In certain circumstances, parents of children with disabilities do not take their children with disabilities for under-five clinic in fear of stigma and discrimination.

3.    Family life

Children and youths with disabilities are part of the family. They must enjoy everything other family members enjoy. Instead, many children with disabilities are hidden by their parents and never come out of the house. Many children with disabilities do not enjoy play with their friends. They are left out of family gatherings, fun and visits. When they reach youthful age where they can make their own choices about whom to marry, the youths usually have their families restricting them. This is worse with females. We have had of circumstances where children and youths who are female have been sterilised without their knowledge or consent to avoid them having pregnancies.

4.    Participation, play, culture and recreation

Participation, play, culture and recreation are a stimulating factor for the development and growth of all children. Many children with disabilities are denied this. This begins from the homes and it is aggravated in the community and worse still in the schools. In the home, parents over-protect their children and thus deny them the right to play ad interact with other children. The children and youths with disabilities are even denied the right to participate in matters that affect them. Parents and other siblings always want to make decision on their behalf without consulting or involving them. Cultural and recreational facilities and activities are either absent or if present are inaccessible to children with youths with disabilities.

5.    Protection

Children and youths with disabilities are at high risk of abuse, violence and exploitation. This abuse, violence and exploitation tend to be more for girls and women with disabilities. The abuse, violence and exploitation range from sexual abuse, child labour, concealing, neglect, rebuke and derogative language. This abuse, violence and exploitation go on right from the home, to the community and in school. It goes on with impunity and children and youths with disabilities do not receive any deliberate protection against such vices.

6.    Vocational training and employment opportunities

There are very few vocational training opportunities for youths with disabilities in Zambia. Youths with disabilities do not have as wide a choice in vocational training as their peers without disabilities have. The youths do not have these opportunities because the available vocational training courses are not suitable for them due to inaccessibility; inappropriate training materials; and inadequately trained instructors to handle the needs of youths with disabilities. The training and instruction methodologies are also not appropriate for different categories of youths with disabilities. This is the same with the assessment and examination techniques. The limitation in vocational training limits the employment opportunities.

GENERAL EFFECTS OF THE ABOVE

Due to the above difficulties and issues, children and youths with disabilities continue to feel neglected and discriminated on the basis on their disabilities across all sectors of human development. They continue to remain out of school. If enrolled to school, they drop out early and do not attend secondary education. Those who complete secondary education remain without tertiary education. This increases the chances of children and youths with disabilities to grow and develop into adults who require social welfare assistance. Instead of contributing to the development of the country through paying tax, they drain the little social welfare funds that could have channeled to sectors like education and health.

Some children and youths with disabilities suffered abuse, violence and exploitation which have led to the loss of their lives. We have seen children and youths with mental disabilities being chained and tied to trees or abandoned in the forest. This is traumatizing to every child and youth with a disability.

HUMAN RIGHTS
We would like the HRC to actively promote the rights of children with disabilities as enshrined in the UNCRPD.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We children and youths with disabilities, today, pray for the following:

1.    A thorough investigation on the status of the rights and fundamental freedoms of children and youths with disabilities by the Human Rights Commission in Zambia. The investigation should be a matter of urgency and should provide explicit recommendations to prompt administrative, policy, legislative and programme measures to redress the above human rights issues. Such investigations should involve directly the children and youths with disabilities and their parents.

2.    The Human Rights Commission should with immediate effect provide interim recommendations based on the above human rights issues to different duty bearers on the need to expedite redress of the issues for the full benefit of children and youths with disabilities.

3.    The government should officially designate the Human Rights Commission as the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for the domestication and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) - Article 33. In view of this, the HRC should begin monitoring the respect and protection of the rights of children and youths with disabilities.

4.    Government, through the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health should begin the consultative process of writing the first State Report to the UN Committee on Disability. This report should bring out the issues of children and youths with disabilities in Zambia.

5.    The Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities should with immediate effect begin to carry out awareness creation programmes on the rights and fundamental freedoms of children and youths with disabilities. Such programmes should involve directly children and youths with disabilities.

6.    Human Rights Commission in conjunction with ZAPCD should carry out awareness creation programmes in schools on the rights of children and youths with disabilities and the obligation of the schools and other children without disabilities.

Submitted to the Human Rights Commission with a copy to the President of the Republic on the 2^nd of November, 2014 in Lusaka, Zambia.

 

Next Two Months and Persons with Disabilities!

Sylvester Katontonka, Mental Health Users Network of Zambia - Coordinator

Our great and vibrant leader, Mr. Michael Sata has been put to rest. MHSRIP!

He obviously leaves sorrow, grief, cry and a feeling of loss in everyone. He leaves a very dark cloud above all of us which will take time to dissolve. He leaves empty space. Peace is with us as linger around the empty space.

Mr. Michael Sata has created a gap. A gap that will cause suspicion, fear, doubt, uncertainty and of course name calling. Let us treat this gap as a peace builder. In order to fit in this peace we ourselves as individuals must immediately mutate into peace makers. Peace is with us!

Where are persons with disabilities in this gap? Persons with disabilities and their representative organisations must with immediate effect begin to preach peace. We have entered into a period of turbulence, volatility and political contest. Why should persons with disabilities begin to preach peace? Peace brings unity. Unity breeds development. Development moulds improved livelihood. Persons with disabilities want improved livelihood. Therefore, in preaching peace, organisations of persons with disabilities should come out and clearly be seen to be calling for leaders who will improve the livelihood of persons with disabilities.

Organisations of persons with disabilities should call for the quick launch of the National Policy on Disability and the National Social Protection Policy. The approval of these policies was expedited during President Sata, s reign. The political leaders who will be campaigning should be reminded that this is key for persons with disabilities. This will enhance the effective inclusion of persons with disabilities in community and national level development.

The political leaders should be reminded that persons with disabilities want the implementation of the recommendations that came out of a report on the Human Rights of Persons with Mental Health Issues mid-2014. The report made clear recommendations on improving the human rights of persons with mental health issues including women and children. The report is with government and was launched by the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre of Hungary in conjunction with Mental Health Users Network of Zambia.

The political leaders should be reminded to prioritise the implementation of the recommendations which were submitted to them by the Human Rights Watch on issues around Persons with Disabilities and HIV/Aids in Zambia. Health matter should be put as priority for persons with disabilities. The report is with government.

Persons with disabilities need access to land for development. This is an issue which the political leaders should promise persons with disabilities. Land is very difficult to acquire for persons with disabilities because of the exorbitant cost it fetches. Organisations of persons with disabilities should demand that land should will be put as priority as the leaders campaign.

Early Childhood Education is still a nightmare for children with disabilities. Developing an inclusive early childhood education system which will deliver quality education effectively to children with disabilities is key. Persons with disabilities should ask questions to the political leaders on whether they will consider children with disabilities. Children with disabilities should be seen to easily enroll in any school and participate fully and effectively on an equal basis with other children. Which political leader promises this? Check!
Creation of employment for youths and adults with disabilities should not be political rhetoric and policy mirage. Organisations of persons with disabilities should check out for real leaders offering systematic delivery of equal opportunities for youths and adults with disabilities.
Women with disabilities continue to suffer abuse, violence and exploitation. Which political leader promises to improve this matter? Check!
Organisations of persons with disabilities should check the political leaders against their understanding of the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This should now form part of their manifestoes or campaign messages. In order to have them commit themselves, persons with disabilities, through their representative organisations should sign social contracts with the key political parties. They should campaign on the basis of these social contracts. After elections, the leaders who will rise to the ‘throne’ should be checked against the social contract. What do you think about this?
This is the time to rise, persons with disabilities!

Wamundila Waliuya

Let’s do this!

Proposal to Honour His Excellence Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata

5 November, 2014

Hon Emerine Kabanshi MP

Minister of Community Development, Mother and Child Health,

Lusaka. 

Dear Honourable Minister,

Re: Proposal to Honour His Excellence Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata

We would like to deliver our heart-felt condolences to the government of the Republic of Zambia and more to the family of the late President. We further would like to propose to your Ministry to name the Ambassadorial Country Award on Disability being awarded by the African Disability Alliance to the government after our late President. We propose that the award be called the Michael Sata Ambassadoral Country Award on Disability. We feel this will be a big hour to our great President.

We observe the following:

i)             Mr. Sata ensured the Persons with Disabilities Act of 2012 was enacted immediately he came into power as a promise he made to persons with disabilities.

ii)            Government has quickly put in place a National Policy on Disability and its Implementation Plan.

iii)           Government has re-appointed Disability Focal Point Persons to ensure mainstreaming of disability issues across all government ministries.

iv)           For the first time, government increased the budgetary allocation to the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities by 80% in the 2014 national budget.

v)            The Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities is in the process of training the Focal Point Persons on disability mainstreaming.

These are great milestones under the leadership of the late President. Therefore honouring him will be a good service to Zambia. We hope our proposal will be accepted.

May His Soul Rest In Peace

Bruce Chooma

Cc: The Director – Social Welfare

DISABILITY RIGHTS WATCH PROPOSES AMBASSADORIAL AWARD IN HONOUR OF PRESIDENT SATA

We receive the death of our President Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata with great pain and misbelieve. Persons with disabilities will remember the late President for his courage and boldness in dealing with work and development related issues. The President struggled for all Zambians while exhibiting a sense of both humour and seriousness at the same time.

The first thing President Sata did for persons with disabilities when he came into power was to quickly enact the Persons with Disabilities Act of 2012. The Act domesticates the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The government struggled on to develop a National Disability Policy and its Implementation Plan. Government has also developed the National Disability Mainstreaming Plan. All this was under the able hand of Mr. Sata.

For the first time, after close to ten years, the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities received an 80% increase from government in the 2014 budget. In most of his commitments Michael Sata never forgot persons with disabilities.

It is in view of the above that Zambia will be receiving an Ambassadorial Country Award from the Secretariat of the African Decade on Disability, now called the African Disability Alliance (ADA). The Award will be handed over to government on 3^rd December, 2014. 3^rd December is the International Day for Persons with Disabilities. Mr. Sata was to receive the Award on behalf of the Zambians. Today he is gone.

We strongly propose that the Award be a dedication to him. It should be called the “Michael Sata Ambassadorial Award to Zambia”.

May His Soul Rest In Peace

CHALLENGING THE EXERCISE OF LEGAL CAPACITY IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

OUR partners The Mental Health Users Network of Zambia MHUNZA have produced a useful and insightful report on the exercise of legal capacity for persons with mental disabilities. They contend that the current legal framework governing the electoral process in Zambia is discriminatory.

The findings of the legal analysis will be made public at a dissemination meeting to be held in Lusaka with the attendance of leading civil society actors on Friday 17th October, 2014.

If the law is explicitly discriminating, why should society not discriminate. The political systems use these laws to establish and mage themselves. In doing so, again, persons with mental disabilities are negatively affected.

 It is of our view that the laws have got discrepancies. If the Constitution and the Electoral Act equate a person “of unsound mind” to a Person with a Disability, then the law contradicts the Persons with Disabilities Act because the Act of 2012 clearly promotes the rights of persons with mental disabilities.

 We shall publish the full report here at the end of the week. 

DRW embarks on Strategic Advocacy Capacity Building for Zambian DPOs

The Disability Rights Watch has embarked on a programme to build the capacity of Disabled Persons Organisations DPOs in strategic advocacy and interpretation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The first training of trainers was convened in Lusaka from 3-4 October 2014 and had board members and programme managers of DPOs supported by Opportunity Zambia in attendance. The organisations that attended this training are Mental Health Users Network of Zambia, Zambia Association for Parents of Children with Disabilities, The Zambia Association of Employment of Parents of Children with Disabilities and the Archie Hinchcliff Disability Intervention.

Here below is one key presentation made by DRW President Waliuya Wamundila at the training:

  

DISABILITY RIGHTS WATCH

Facipulation

Facipulation! This sounds to be a completely new word. It seems to be combination of two words. These words are ‘facilitation’ and ‘manipulation’. In simple terms it means facilitating while manipulating. A trainer may facilitate a workshop while manipulating the learning process. In many circumstances, people treat the word manipulation negatively. It apparently means twisting information or forcing change on people. We have heard of political manipulation. So, it is important to ensure that we as facilitators of training sessions remove this negative connotation. When people say they have been manipulated they geel abused or badly treated and cheated. In life we need to manipulate something in order to resolve certain situations.

For instance, a physiotherapist need to manipulate some muscles in some ailing parts of the body in order to remove pain or strengthen the muscles. This is good manipulation. During the process of facilitating learning in a workshop, manipulation is used positively. The learning process is positively manipulated to re-enforce particular thinking. This form of manipulating is more of mental than the physical one done by the physiotherapist.

Some scholars have indicated that most facilitators of personal or organisational development would not like to be described as manipulative. They’d describe their “facilitation” as a process of helping people to help themselves, to reach a goal, to identify a path and indeed to achieve something either set out clearly at the start, or discovered along the way. Facilitators make the path easier, they help people get to where they want to go, or to identify the want in the first place. Some facilitators will be more convergent in style working with a clearly laid out target, goal, and even route to get there. Others will be emergent. They allow the learning to shape itself as they go along.

A physiotherapist is a manipulator. Due to trust from their clients, they are allowed to manipulate for the purpose of good. The client will not treat this as manipulation. In facilitating learning, the facilitator goes into the same relationship. When necessary, they will have to manipulate the process in order to achieve their learning goal.
In my training experience, I have done a lot of manipulation in order to shift the thinking of people. My experience is in facilitation learning workshops for persons with different disabilities including children. Just imagine facilitating a workshop with all categories of disabilities, including those with intellectual disabilities. It takes mental manipulation to achieve your goal. A facilitator should be able to change methodologies to fit the prevailing situation without the participants knowing what is happening. Participants move with the facilitator because they trust his/her skills. Good manipulators tend to be good facilitators. So, they are good facipulators.

Just imagine you are facilitating a workshop for participants who feel they are more skilled than you in facilitating. The based is to manipulate them positively. Use new manipulating methodologies they may not experienced. Most facilitators like group work for their workshops. Well! It is good but add more flavor to it. When training persons with disabilities, most especially children, a facilitator simply needs to be a manipulator. In certain circumstances individualized manipulation is necessary to enhance the learning process.

We can now see what facipulation is. It is manipulative facilitation of a learning process with the aim of achieving the goal the facilitator has set to achieve. In many circumstances, the participants do not even realise that they are being manipulated. The facilitator asks the participants to get to do things he has planned to have them do. In facipulation, it is assumed that the participants have allowed the facilitator to help them to a better level in terms of learning or development. There is existing trust.

There are some situations in which facipulation tends to be negative in a workshop. Some of the circumstances are as follows:

      When the facilitator is in a conflict of interest with those who have hired him/her or with the rest of the participants. This comes when the facilitator has interest in the agenda of the organisation he/she is hired to work for.

      When the facilitator is not confident enough to manipulate emerging circumstances. The facilitator pre-determines the games, group work and other methods and fails to adapt when things change. They tend to manipulate the workshop to fit into their plans.

      When the facilitator wants to manipulate the workshop to meet their needs rather than those of the participants. Some scholars say that people who are formerly pure managers of faculty consultants always tend to be rigid and conduct the sessions like a choir.

      When the facilitator is insecure and keeps a distance from the participants.

      When the facilitator is naturally a manipulator and bully in their life. They usually tend to push around people and so they will do it with the participants.

      When the facilitator does not know the area/topic very well. They may have been assigned to facilitate on behalf on another person or use rot memory. The workshop becomes very mechanical. They may use power point from beginning to end. They may fail to take questions so they manipulate the process to themselves.

The above circumstances should never happen at all. But they happen!

Facipulation is above asking the right questions at the right time. It is about helping the participants get to where they desire to be in terms of learning and experience. The facilitator coordinates the learning process. Facipulation is an art. It is a delicate blend of facilitation in which there is catalyzing, easing and supporting conversations and actions around issues important to the participants.

At the same time, facipulation involves manipulation in which there is steering conversations by participants towards their established themes and goals, and ensuring that actions and decisions made by the participants support their interests. It should not be towards the interests of the facilitator.
When planning a workshop ensure that you study the list of participants and check whether there are some whom you know are difficult. Make specific plans for them to be easily manipulated. Prepare good snacks, T-shirts, pens, notebooks and make all the participants feel at home and want to be invited to another workshop in future.

Assign people to groups ahead of time, and plant someone who knows exactly what you want to achieve in each group. Talk to those whom you have planted and tell them that you have chosen them to assist you facilitate the process. Never put the difficult people in the same group. Engeneer the group work questions in such a way that you get what you want. Never give enough time for the groups to complete their work. They may never complete.

Call for feedback and ask the participants on how they want to do their presentations. Allow one group at a time. Allow questions and comments. Do not comment a lot. After they have presented tell them what you exactly expected them to present. Lead them to agree with you.

Wamundila Waliuya.

October, 2014.

KILLING OF A PERSON WITH A MENTAL DISABILITY IN MONGU

Our partners the Mental Health Users Network of Zambia has issued this important statement:

October 6, 2014

PRESS STATEMENT

For Immediate Release

RE: THE KILLING OF A MENTAL HEALTH USER IN MONGU

The Mental Health Users Network of Zambia MHUNZA is concerned at the reported death of a person with a mental disability at the hands of another mental health user in a public mental health unit in Mongu, Western Province of Zambia.

MHUNZA is appealing to the relevant authorities to thoroughly and quickly investigate this issue to ascertain the circumstances under which the death occurred.

The killing of a mental health patient by another patient whilst in a government run health institution is a stark reminder of how badly persons with mental disabilities are neglected in our country. It is even more saddening that this incident has happened at a time when we join the rest of the world in commemorating World Mental Health Day on the 10^th October, 2014.

We would love to convey our heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased. We know how it feels to lose a loved one. This is the reason why MHUNZA is lobbying for the new Mental Health Bill to be passed in Parliament to repeal the current archaic Mental Health Act of 1951.

It is regrettable that a life was lost because of lack of care and inadequate human resource to provide mental health services in the public health system. What happened in Mongu is a violation of the rights and inherent dignity of persons with mental health disabilities and is only a tip of the iceberg in as far as the challenge of mental health management is concerned in Zambia. We must all work together to put an end to this.

A few weeks ago MHUNZA working with the Ministry of Health and the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre launched a report of a human rights investigation done on mental health facilities and services in Zambia. The report documents the challenges that confront the management of mental health services in Zambia which results in incidents like these. The report reveals the degrading conditions and treatment that persons with mental health issues face in Zambia. We appeal to government to upgrade all mental health facilities and support community based rehabilitation services.

Zambia is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities UNCRPD which provides for the protection of the rights of persons with mental disabilities. It is therefore important that in line with international standards Zambia should ensure the availability of community based support services and mental health services at primary level with adequate and trained mental health personnel.

Issued by:

Mulima Kasote

Acting National Coordinator

Phone: +260975403524

Human rights and mental health in Zambia: Recommendations for Action

The report “Human rights and mental health in Zambia” is the outcome of a three-year investigation conducted by the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) and the Mental Health Users Network of Zambia (MHUNZA). It is the first such investigation based on international human rights standards in the country, and the report can be downloaded at www.mdac.org/zambia.
The report documents the testimonies of over 100 people with mental health issues and their family members around the country and lays out findings from human rights monitoring in five psychiatric facilities, including the only national tertiary care psychiatric facility, Chainama Hills Hospital.
Key findings
Zambia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2010, thereby committing to upholding the rights of all people with disabilities, including people with mental health issues. However MDAC and MHUNZA found that abuse and ill-treatment against people with mental health issues are widespread and based on stigma and discrimination. The Mental Disorders Act 1951 entrenches state discrimination against people with mental health issues and is in urgent need of repeal. The report documents serious human rights violations in the community, in traditional healing settings, in conventional psychiatric facilities, and in respect of the justice system. 

Families bear the brunt of caring for their relatives with mental health issues with very little support, but this can also result in abuse in the home without any investigation.

Community-based mental health services were found to be virtually non-existent, particularly in rural communities.

Traditional healers operated across the country. While some people said traditional healers could be helpful, reports were uncovered of abusive practices including financial exploitation. The President of the Traditional Health Practitioners’ Association of Zambia raised concerns that almost half of registered traditional healers were ‘quacks’.
Serious overcrowding was evident on psychiatric wards visited, where people were warehoused in dilapidated and unhygienic conditions.  There was no access to therapy neither on psychiatric wards nor in the ‘mental health settlement’ visited. Only Chainama Hills Hospital offered minimal and insufficient occupational therapy to a minority of people there.  Seclusion rooms and high doses of strong psychiatric drugs were found to be default options of mental health practitioners. These practices are harmful and do not help with a person’s recovery.   The Mental Disorders Act 1951 allows for prolonged and unlawful detention.
Developing recommendations
On 6 August 2014, the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC), Mental Health Users Network of Zambia (MHUNZA) and the Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD) presented the findings from the “Human rights and mental health in Zambia” report in Lusaka. A wide range of people who are influenced by and can influence mental health law in Zambia discussed the findings.1
Participants jointly developed a set of recommendations to tackle abuses. Recognising that systemic action is required, the event brought together key stakeholders from across civil society and government. 
Recommendations
Participants at the roundtable developed recommendations which they agreed to contribute to implementing, within the competences of their organisations. The Zambian government should:
1. Repeal the Mental Disorders Act 1951, and enact new legislation which harmonises Zambian law with the standards set out of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), particularly in relation to the provision of community-based services, and providing access to health services on the basis of informed consent on an equal basis with others.

2. Ratify the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture, and take action to establish systemic independent monitoring of all places where people may be deprived of their liberty, including psychiatric hospitals.

3. Designate the Zambian Human Rights Commission as the independent monitoring body required by Article 33 of the CRPD, and establish systemic monitoring of all services and facilities for people with mental health issues.

4. Closely involve civil society, and specifically people with mental health issues and their representative organisations in ongoing law and policy reform, as set out in Article 4(3) of the CRPD. 5. Collect and publicise disaggregated data on the rights of people with mental health issues and use this to develop human rights compliant services, as set out in Article 31 of the CRPD.
In addition to these recommendations, participants at the consultation event also called on the government to take measurable steps to advance the rights of people with mental health issues.
The right to independent living in the community
1. Develop a plan for the roll-out of community-based support services with the purpose of ensuring the inclusion of people with mental health issues into their communities, ensuring their right to live independently in line with Article 19 of the CRPD. This should be based on a multidisciplinary approach across government and service providers. 2. Adapt social welfare and protection programmes to be inclusive of people with mental health issues. 3. Introduce psychosocial counselling and support for families and other care-givers of people with mental health issues. 4. Increase income-generating and community empowerment programmes for people with mental health issues to break the cycle of poverty and discrimination. 5. Ensure availability and access to mental healthcare services at the primary healthcare level which specifically address the rights and needs of people with mental health issues.
1. Ensure that all allegations of abuse and ill-treatment against people with mental health issues are promptly and effectively investigated, whether the abuse is alleged to have taken place in the community, traditional health settings, psychiatric facilities or within the justice system. 2. Strengthen the referral system to investigate human rights violations in the community with the participation of community members. This should include developing awareness of third party referrals to the Human Rights Commission. 3. Develop and roll out a training programme for police and other professionals in the criminal justice system on the human rights of people with mental health issues. This should include neighborhood or village watch committees who can minimise abuse. 4. Ensure that the Traditional Healers Bill is enacted into law promptly, and thereafter take enforcement action against abusive traditional healers who practice without certification. 5. With the participation of people with mental health issues, develop professional guidelines for medical and nursing personnel on minimising seclusion and restraint in psychiatric facilities. Where seclusion or restraints are used, ensure there are accessible and effective accountability, appeals and redress mechanisms. This should be conducted in a reasonable timeframe with the ultimate aim of ending the use of seclusion and restraints.  6. Abolish “detention at His Excellency’s Pleasure (HEPs)” in the criminal justice system for people with mental health issues. 7. Harmonise all criminal legislation with the requirements of the Persons with Disabilities Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 8. Promote alternatives to retributive justice through strengthening informal/restorative justice systems. Encourage the judiciary to use restorative justice wherever possible.  9. Ensure that disaggregated statistics about the rights of people with disabilities in the criminal justice system are collected and made available. 
Capacity building and awareness-raising
1. Ensure that people with mental health issues are provided with information in accessible languages to increase their understanding of their human rights.

2. Roll out education, advocacy and sensitisation programmes in communities across Zambia based on human rights standards to challenge myths about mental illness, lead by people with mental health issues themselves. This should include training for community leaders, traditional healers, families and carers.

3. Introduce and support the development of peer-support groups for people with mental health issues in their communities.

 4. Facilitate collaboration and dialogue between traditional practitioners, conventional medicine practitioners and people with mental health issues.

 5. Roll out a compulsory training programme for all medical, nursing and social work staff on mental health issues and human rights standards.

 6. Put in place education and awareness raising programmes for policy makers across government on human rights and mental health.

 7. Roll out training for professionals who work in the criminal justice system on human rights. 
Legislative reform
1. Establish a legal framework for the regulation of traditional health practitioners which incorporates human rights standards, including the right to freedom from torture, exploitation, abuse and violence. 2. Carry out research into mental health detention orders, their use and misuse, and develop a policy of reform based on evidence collected.  3. Coordinate and monitor human rights standards across government for people with mental health issues across the justice system (as per Article 33(1) of the CRPD). 
Health services
1. Ensure all treatment provided to people with mental health issues is based on the principle of free and informed consent, whether this takes place in psychiatric facilities or traditional healing settings. 2. Establish mental health services within primary healthcare and community support programmes, and provide training to all general healthcare professionals on mental health and human rights.

 3. Develop a national referral process between traditional and conventional medicine practitioners. 4. Ensure that each district hospital provides mental health services to the community and ensure that services are not solely pharmacological-based.

 5. Ensure that a patients’ rights charter, developed with people with mental health issues, is displayed in all mental health facilities, and translated into local languages. 6. Prosecute medical and nursing professionals who neglect to provide general healthcare to people with mental health issues. 7. Introduce supported decision-making for people with mental health issues to ensure that their will and preferences are respected in healthcare decisions, including mental health treatments. 8. Develop advance directives to ensure that the will and preferences of people with mental health issues are respected in relation to the care they receive at times of crisis. 9. Ensure that each health facility provides information about rights to patients and family members, and establishes an effective complaints mechanism.  

Advocacy Working Group in Action

We are grateful to the embassy of Finland for supporting the work of the advocacy working group for the rights of children with disabilities spearheaded by their parents. Here the working group meeting in Lusaka's George Compound to review progress on its work and develop new strategies.

Disability Rights Watch toasts release of persons with mental disabilities from Chainama East Prison

For Immediate Release I

August 11, 2014

This statement is released following the release of five persons with mental disabilities from prison by the Lusaka High Court last week.

Disability Rights Watch is pleased with the bold decision of the High Court to declare the long detention of the five mentally disabled persons illegal. In our view, this is a landmark judgment which will build up the portfolio of judgments which promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. The judgment has established a precedence in Zambia’s jurisprudence.

Disability Rights Watch DRW wishes to congratulate the Lusaka High Court for this landmark judgment. The organisation feels that it takes judicial activism to pass such judgments. DRW further congratulates the Legal Resources Chambers (LRC) for representing the petitioners with mental disabilities. We appeal to LRC to continue to take up more cases concerning persons with disabilities

Persons with mental disabilities who have been declared not fit to undergo trial and needed treatment have been detained for many years in our prisons. The conditions under which they are detained are not pleasant at all. Today, many more are still in prison without a fair trial and there is no one to stand for the protection of their rights to be only when found guilt after a fair trial.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities indicates that “States Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities, on an equal basis with others: enjoy the right to liberty and security of person; are not deprived of their liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily, and that any deprivation of liberty is in conformity with the law, and that the existence of a disability shall in no case justify a deprivation of liberty”.

Therefore, the continuous detention of persons with mental disabilities in prisons for long periods of time is in contradiction with international human rights law.

We wish to state here that the Zambian government ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is bound to stick to its principles. Furthermore, the government enacted a progressive law which requires the courts to provide support for persons with disabilities to access court proceedings on an equal basis with other persons. The Persons with Disabilities Act of 2012 says that the judicature shall take necessary measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal and effective protection and equal benefits of the law without discrimination. This includes persons with mental disabilities. The Act in part 2, section 8.(3) further states that there a person with disability is a party in any legal proceedings, the adjudicating body shall take into account the condition of the person with disability and provide procedural and other appropriate facilities to enable the person with disability to access  justice and participate effectively in the proceedings. In this case, the courts should now shape themselves to provide reasonable accommodation for persons with mental disabilities rather than detaining them for many years as they wait for psychiatry assessment.

An argument may be raised here that such people may be a danger to the community. This is a justifiable argument. It must however be realised that most of the people who commit crimes while in a state of mental crisis are usually triggered by social factors. It is the responsibility of the state and the citizenry at large to ensure factors that trigger mental crisis in many of the persons with mental disabilities are controlled. Steps should be taken to progressively develop community support services that will act as a measure to reduce mental disabilities. Such services include community based mental health services and community based rehabilitation. Families and communities should be educated on issues related to mental disability. Such education programmes should be supported by the state in such a way that the support is equated to that given to HIV/AIDS.

Now that the five persons were released from Chainama East Prison, a big question arises: is the family and community ready for them? This is why we are calling for a serious consideration to develop comprehensive community based support services for persons with mental disabilities.

We wish to congratulate the Lusaka High Court for the landmark judgment. It takes judicial activism to pass such judgments. We also congratulate the Legal Resources Chambers for representing the petitioners with mental disabilities. Will LRC continue to take up more cases concerning persons with disabilities.

 

Wamundila Waliuya,

August, 2014.