Human rights?

The article on human rights published in The Sunday Times last week was entitled "The UN and the ongoing September 11 aftermath: dumb and schizophrenic?"

While praising the authors for the content of the article, allow me to ask what 'schizophrenic' has to do with the message they wished to convey.

Schizophrenia is a mental health problem that can cause great suffering to the person who lives with it. Even more debilitating is the stigma and discrimination that the person with schizophrenia has to face because of lack of knowledge and misconceptions prevalent in society.

The media have the choice of combating or perpetuating such misconceptions. Using the term 'schizophrenic' when one means 'two-faced' or 'hypocritical' will certainly not help to raise awareness about the true nature of schizophrenia.

When we speak of human rights, we must keep in mind that persons with mental health problems also have rights, which we have a duty to respect and promote.