A Critical Examination of the Realisation of the Right to Mental Health for Children with Mental Disabilities in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Mental health has fallen down the importance list in Zimbabwe as; cancer, COVID 19 and the AIDS menace have taken precedence and higher consideration. This is despite the fact the Ministry of Health and Child Care had launched a Mental Health strategy to cover the period 2019- 2023. With the advent of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006, the space of disabilities has expanded to embrace persons with mental or intellectual impairments. Despite the widespread ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); the rights of children with disabilities all over the world are constantly threatened with challenges that compromise the realisation of fundamental human rights. This article evaluated Zimbabwe’s current legal frameworks that are in place for the realisation of the right to mental health for children living with mental disabilities. This article also interrogated the international and regional instruments that promote the right to mental health. A doctrinal research approach was carried out on the international, regional and national legal instruments on the right to mental health for children living with mental disabilities. A comparative analysis of Zimbabwe and South Africa’s legal frameworks on mental health was also examined. The international and regional human rights instruments advocated a move away from an illness model towards a disability model targeted at understanding the consequences of mental illnesses. It was noted that national mental health legislative framework should provide a legal framework to address appropriate issues such as the integration of persons with mental disorders in communities and the improvement of access to mental health care services for persons with disabilities to avoid discrimination. It was noted that there was need for a substantial increase in funding for mental health care services to enhance accessibility and quality service in the realization of the right to metal health for children with disabilities.