MindFreedom Ghana, a leading Mental Health advocacy organization in the country has received plaudits for its role in pushing for the recognition of the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities in the 4th Cycle Universal Peer Review (UPR) process.
Lawyer Esther Akua Gyamfi, Executive Secretary, National Council on Persons with Disabilities, commended the organization during a validation workshop in Accra on Thursday.
She stated that for taking the lead role in ensuring that a report on psychosocial disabilities is put on the front burner for the Universal Peer Review process, the organization deserves a lot of commendation.
After taking part in the zonal validation meeting and making relevant contributions to the Shadow report, Lawyer Esther Akua Gyamfi noted,… “In fact, I am impressed,… this is a good report; … you have done a good job in putting together this report and I must commend you for this.”
Other participants from the Greater Accra, Volta and Eastern Regions were impressed with the draft report.
The validation workshop was a follow-up to a consultative meeting held in January this year. The meeting was to help conclude discussions on the Shadow Report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on July 14.
Giving an overview of the project, Mr Dan Taylor, Executive Secretary of MindFreedom Ghana said the workshop sought to increase the participation of psychosocial disability organisations in assessing and reporting on the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities in the UPR.
It was also to promote media awareness of the number of recommendations and advocacy for improving human rights for persons with psychosocial disabilities.
Mr Taylor explained that MindFreedom has in the past few days held validation workshops with representations from the 16 administrative regions of Ghana in four zonal locations.
The meeting was supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
Source: Mohammed Suleman/Publicagendagh.com
