February 9, 2021
By: Mohamed Kargbo
The Head of Mental Health Coalition of Sierra Leone, Mr. Joshua A. Duncan in an interview with A-Z newspaper said that they have been calling on the Government of Sierra Leone to repeal the Lunacy Act of 1902.
“The current Lunacy Act of 1902 has no human right face and is not consistent with modern trends,” he said.
According to Duncan “The Lunacy Act of 1902 contravenes prevailing human rights norms. In section 19 for example, the Act permits a mental hospital to detain a mental health patient so long as he continues to be insane.”
Mr. Duncan pointed out that, Section 17 (1) of the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone reaffirms the misleading view and permits the detention of anyone “…reasonably suspected to be of unsound mind. ” This clearly contravenes article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, both of which Sierra Leone has ratified.
He added that Sierra Leone has gone through a series of crisis situations like the civil war, Ebola, Mudslide and now COVID-19 and that there is a great need for the country to have a new Mental Health Act to replace the Lunacy Act of 1902.
“I pray and hope that none of us succumbs to mental illnesses. As it stands now, the Lunacy Act of 1902 treats persons with mental disorders as criminals rather than patients” he pleaded.
In spite of so many challenges, the Head of Program expressed optimism that the Lunacy Act that is over 100 years in our law books will be repealed.
He appealed to all media institutions and other actors to support this initiative.
Sierra Leone is among few countries in the World that is still using the Mental Health Act that is over 100 years old and not human right friendly.
To date, the African continent is behind others in meeting these objectives. For example, only 21% of African countries have updated their mental health legislation; compared to a global average of 40%, and only 27% have resourced policies, compared to 53% in the rest of the world.
Providing the position government on the issue, Mrs Kadiatu Savage, the Programme Manager for Mental Health in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation said the repeal the Lunacy Act is in progress. She disclosed that the Law Officer’s department is working on the draft, noting that when the bill is enacted it will change the attitude of people towards mental health patients.
It has been revealed that in 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation hired international and national consultants to repeal the Lunacy Act of 1902, through World Health Organization support. And in late December 2017, the National Lawyer embarked on District consultative meetings with different stakeholders at the District level covering Bombali, Kambia, Port Loko, and Tonkolili.
Progress was however stalled in the legislative process but due to the 2018 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, A-Z News has gathered.
Historically, the mental healthcare center is at “Kissy Lunatic Asylum” which has been in existence since 1802. It is the oldest asylum in sub-Saharan Africa, now referred to as the Sierra Leone Psychiatrist Hospital (SLPH). It remains the country’s only in-patient facility.
