Human Rights and Psychiatry in South Asia

Abstract

The countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a common socio-cultural background, geographical contiguity and history. These countries are generally considered to constitute South Asia. Health in general and mental health in particular has remained low priority areas in these countries. As a result, there has been little concern for the human rights of the mentally ill in these countries. The major sources of human rights violations have been the inability of a vast number of mentally ill to access psychiatric services and the violations of human rights of these people once they have come in contact with psychiatric services. The main reason for this is the lack of properly funded and manned mental health programmes and the absence or improper implementation of mental health legislations meant to regulate psychiatry and psychiatric practice. Psychiatry and psychiatrists have played a major role in the generation of data regarding illness burden, treatment gap and the treatment models that would enable people in the community to access psychiatric services. Advocacy, judicial activism and awareness generation have led to countries such as India strengthening safeguards against human rights violations. The acceptance of the United Nations convention on the rights of people with disability augurs well for the protection and promotion of human rights of people with disabilities secondary to mental illness in the countries of South Asia.