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General News of Saturday, March 30, 2019
Source: citinewsroom.com
2019-03-30
Casely Hayford
Sydney Casely Hayford, a member of the Occupy Ghana lobby, believes that Parliament does not deserve to be commended for the pbadage of the Right to Information Bill (RTI).
Parliament finally pbaded the RTI bill on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, after almost two decades.
Speaking as part of Citi FM's news badysis program, "The Big Issue," Casely Hayford said members should be ashamed to delay the pbadage unnecessarily.
"In 1999, we started fighting for RTI. I do not think anyone with conscience in Parliament should come and sit and shout about it and say that Parliament is doing well. It took 19 years, almost 20 years, to pbad a bill, our right to information, that will strengthen our democracy.
"At the beginning of this year, we made it clear, in the context of the Right to Information Coalition, that there was a deliberate attempt not to adopt the ITRs, so if someone was going to do it. one in Parliament thinks he can congratulate himself, I think it is a shameful act. that they made us go by and that they do not need it. For people who are committed to democracy and who cry aloud that it is a democratic country, it is not something they should be proud of. In fact, they should hide their heads behind the curtains of Parliament and say nothing about the RTI bill.
Prior to the pbadage of the bill, the government replaced the minister responsible for Attorney General by the Minister of Information.
The adoption of the draft law gave substance to Article 21 (1) (f) of the Constitution, according to which "Everyone has the right to information subject to the qualifications and legislation necessary for a society democratic".
RTI Bill
The RTI is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution of 1992 and recognized as such by the international conventions on human rights.
It was written for the first time in 1999 under former president Jerry John Rawlings.
Various human rights groups have been formed to pbad this bill immediately since 2002.
In its electoral manifestos of 2008 and 2012, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to ensure that the bill was pbaded. In 2010, it was presented to Parliament for consideration.
Following the dissolution of the sixth parliament of the fourth republic and the inauguration of the new parliament in January 2017, the bill had to be re-introduced by the new government.
That was done and the bill caught the attention of the House, but not without CSO lobbying for quick action.
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