Worldwide Campaign to End Shackling, Shame

Thousands of people with mental health conditions across Nigeria are chained and locked up in various facilities where they face terrible abuse.

Hundreds of people with real or perceived mental health conditions remain chained or confined in prayer camps in Ghana, despite some progress, one year after the government pledged to enforce a ban on shackling.

The Indonesian government has taken important steps to end the practice of shackling people with mental health conditions. But many people remain locked up in institutions instead of being able to live in the community.

The head of Ghana’s Mental Health Authority announced that as of October 10, World Mental Health Day, the country’s ban on shackling – in place since 2012 – will finally be properly enforced.

The Mental Health Authority of Ghana has taken steps to release 16 people, including two girls, held in shackles at Nyakumasi Prayer Camp, a spiritual healing center in the Central Region.

People with psychosocial disabilities (mental health conditions) in Indonesia are shackled or forced into institutions where they often face physical and sexual violence, involuntary treatment including electroshock therapy, seclusion, restraint and forced contraception.

People with mental health conditions in Somaliland are increasingly forced into institutions, where they face serious abuses and poor conditions.

People with mental disabilities suffer severe abuses in psychiatric institutions and spiritual healing centers in Ghana. The Ghanaian government has done little to combat such abuse or to ensure that these people can live in the community, as is their right under international law.