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Amnesty International Ghana has called on the government to implement all international human rights obligations in Ghana’s national law to protect its citizens.
It should also enforce Chapter Five of the 1992 Constitution, which is concerned with protecting the human rights of citizens, taking all necessary measures to ensure that women, children, groups, all prisoners and vulnerable people are not exploited.
Mr. Frank Kwaku Doyi, Director of Amnesty International Ghana, made the appeal during the group’s quarterly briefing with a media section.
He said, for example, that prisoners awaiting trial should be able to effectively exercise their right to promptly challenge the legality of their detention in court, seek release pending trial, and benefit from a speedy trial and fair.
The government, he said, should respect and fully implement the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or imprisonment.
It should also take measures to improve the conditions and treatment of detained persons, tackle the problem of prison overcrowding, in particular by putting in place a genuine policy for the use of non-custodial sentences, in accordance with the Set United Nations Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, among others.
Mr. Doyi further urged the government to ensure that detainees have no disciplinary responsibility for other detainees, adding that Ghana should step up efforts to establish a national torture prevention mechanism, as well. as an effective mechanism to receive and deal with complaints lodged. by inmates.
He condemned all forms of violence against journalists and called on the government to assume its responsibility to guarantee the safety and protection of journalists and all media in the country.
“We call on the government to protect journalists who do their work peacefully against harassment, attacks and arbitrary arrests, to prosecute those responsible and to compensate the victims,” he said.
“We further call on the government to ensure that Ghana complies with the African Commission Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, which requires states to” take effective legal and other measures to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of attacks against journalists and other media professionals, and to ensure that victims have access to effective remedies.
Mr. Doyi stressed that the State was obliged to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of all persons within its jurisdiction, without discrimination on the basis of sex, ethnic origin, social origin, political opinion or other prohibited grounds, including the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to a fair trial and the right freedom of expression.
He also called on the government to ensure that Ghana complies with its reporting obligations under international and regional human rights treaties, by submitting all overdue periodic reports to the relevant treaty monitoring bodies. .
“Ghanaian authorities must investigate the harassment, intimidation, illegal surveillance, physical assault and criminalization of human rights defenders, especially those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as LGBTI defenders,” said he declared.
Ms. Selasi Ewurabena Ahema Tsegah, executive director of the Human Rights Advocacy Center, a non-profit organization, said Ghana had faced a number of human rights violations and other issues that should be a source of concern for all.
She called on the government to provide resources to institutions supposed to protect victims of human rights violations to make their work effective, as well as to abolish cultural norms that violate these rights.
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