Mental Health Bill Approved By Cabinet

Cabinet has approved three bills scheduled for tabling in Parliament during the current session.

In a statement released yesterday afternoon by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Zambia Law Development Commission (Amendment), Mental Health and Local Government bills were discussed and approved during the Cabinet meeting held at State House on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“…President Edgar Chagwa Lungu called for the third Cabinet Meeting at State House held on Tuesday and Wednesday 12th and 13th February, 2019, mainly to deliberate on Legislative matters… Cabinet approved for publication and introduction in Parliament during this sitting ‘The Mental Health Bill, 2018’.  The objectives of the Bill are to provide for the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with mental illness, mental disorder, mental impairment or mental disability; establish the National Mental Health Commission and provide for its functions; provide for mental health services in correctional facilities; give effect to certain provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, principles for the protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental care General Assembly Resolution 46/119 of 17th December, 1991 and other international human rights instruments to which Zambia is a State Party; establish the Mental Health Tribunal and provide for its functions,”

It added that the enactment of the Bill would provide an appropriate mechanism for the better management and treatment of persons with mental conditions.