Lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation is the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities around the world. Many are locked in sheds, cages, or tethered to trees and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area, sometimes for years at a time. Why? Simply because they have a psychosocial disability (mental health condition). This inhumane practice called ‘shackling’ occurs because of the widespread stigma surrounding mental health, and a lack of access to adequate support services, both for those with disabilities and for their families. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children - some as young as ten - have been shackled at least once in their lives in over sixty countries. In 2020 #BreakTheChains published a ground-breaking report exposing the global scale of chaining, and in Kenya, achieved a ruling which found that this practice was inhumane and held the people responsible to account.
Global: break the chains
Written by David Fletcher 05 Aug 2022Additional Info
- Pray: for #BreakTheChains and other initiatives to successfully influence global policies and end chaining so that people with mental health conditions receive the support they need and thrive. (Romans 12:16)
- More: www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/essay/lockdown-in-chains
Tagged under