READ DEMOCRACY AND ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN WEST AFRICA: A CASE OF GHANA 2019-2020

DEMOCRACY AND ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN WEST AFRICA: A CASE OF GHANA 2019-2020

INTRODUCTION

"Step foot there and see what will happen to you people". These were the exact words of the Greater Accra Regional Commander when Ernesto-Yeboah( 2020) resubmitted there notice for public gathering in compliance with the Public Order Act and the Imposition of Restrictions Act and in response, Ghanaian replied with a question in his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/273509779795782/posts/934725140340906/?d=n saying, is this a Democracy? The above is a question from a Ghanaian and in response I replied to him, in this article, yes, it is, Democracy is the most beautiful woman in it home zone but in Africa is with many flaws, this is so as a result of Sharpe abuse of human rights in West Africa and Ghana in particular.  In democratic settings like Ghana abuse of human right has become a big question in 2019/2020 under the regime of President Nana Akufo-Addo and became worst in post Covid-19 era. During this period freedom of association was massively denied and the people were denied fair hearing by the government, something that is heavily unconstitutional.

 Discussions on this argument in Ghana focused on issues of current interests in human rights discourse as it relates freedom of association and movement. In that regard, we adopted a definition that favours a concept of human rights, which, in the spirit of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993), Defining human rights as resources or conditions that constitute the minimal conditions for human existence.

MAJOR CONCEPTS

Democracy, human rights, abuse, West Africa and Ghana

 

A BRIEF ON GHANA HISTORY

According to Ghana Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (2013), Ghana is a sovereign country in West Africa. It was a British colony until the 6 March 1957 when it became the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence.  Ghana human rights report (2019) viewed that, Ghana is a constitutional democracy with a strong presidency and a unicameral of 275-seat parliament, Presidential election sworn in president Nana Akufo-Addo and parliamentary elections sworn in 275 parliamentarians in 2016 election. ; harsh and but sharp abuse of human rights has become a big issue under President Nana Akufo-Addo with life-threatening prison conditions.

 

THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN GHANA AND ITS ABUSE  

According to Ghana human rights report (2019:2), from 1992 Commitment to protecting and promoting human rights was quite high in Ghana. This positive assessment is confirmed by the human rights reports published annually by the United States Embassy in Ghana but in recent they have been massive abuse of human rights in Ghana especially in the period of 2019/202 as the caption of a newspaper article put it, Systematic Human Rights Violations still Persistent. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) report of 2019 draws attention to several instances of violations throughout the country and in 2020 a very good example is the social gathering defiance- when the president said we will deal with law breakers and the statement of the Greater Accra Regional Commander when a group resubmitted notice for public gathering in compliance with the Public Order Act when the  h said, "Step foot there and see what will happen to you people". These were the exact words of the commander.

However, Yaw Kyei (2020) reported in allafrica.com that, the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has warned that anyone who flouts the ban on public and social gathering as set out in Executive Instrument (E.I 64) will face the full wrath of the law. Till May 31, no one is expected to hold or attend conferences, workshops, parties, nightclubs, drinking spots, beaches, festivals, political rallies, religious activities and sporting events. Additionally, all educational facilities, private and public, are to remain closed. There is also a ban on funerals, other than private burials conducted with not more than 25 persons, President Akufo-Addo said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday night.

Yaw Kyei (2020) reported in allafrica.com that, the Constitution of Ghana declares and affirms a fundamental commitment to certain foundational provisions, including fundamental human rights and freedoms of which ever kind which this article is focused on, but there is no reference to human dignity.  This is a great lacunae and constitutional loop holes which the government at any time would like use against the citizen just in the case of post covid-19 abuse of human rights by not including it in the preamble, though it is mentioned in the actual text. This is affirmed by the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties (1969) in section 31 (2) which spell out the function of the preamble to a constitution.   

Freedom of Expression

Ghana Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (2019:10) reported that, the constitution and law provide for freedom of expression, including for the press, and the government generally respected this right but from January 2018 to May 2019, the report said that, there were at least 11 cases of attacks on journalists. In March 2018 police assaulted a reporter who had visited the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters to report on the arrest of a political party official. The reporter sustained fractures to his skull. One year later, in March, the journalist’s company, Multimedia Group Limited, filed a lawsuit against the inspector general of police and attorney general for 10 million Ghanaian cedis ($1.9 million) in compensatory damages for the assault. Civil society organizations and law enforcement authorities worked to develop a media-police relations framework to address the increasingly contentious relationship between the entities.  In January unidentified gunmen shot and killed prominent undercover journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale, following reports from 2018 that a member of parliament had publicly criticized Hussein-Suale and incited violence against him. Hussein-Suale’s investigative crew had produced a film about corruption in the country’s soccer leagues, which included involvement by officials, referees, and coaches. Police questioned the parliamentarian, and reports indicated that authorities arrested several persons without fair hearing and subsequently granted bail. The investigation continued at year’s end.  Another investigative journalist received death threats following the release of his documentary that revealed the presence of a pro-government militia training on government property, despite the administration’s assertions it did not endorse the

 

Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association

The constitution and law provide for the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights.  According to country report on human rights practices (2019: 11), in October police used water cannons and rubber bullets to stop protesting law students demanding reforms to the admissions process for the legal education system. Authorities reportedly arrested between 10 and 13 protesters and subsequently released them.

 

To show the extends of abuse of human right in Ghana in 2020, Section 1(1) of the Ghana Public Order Act states: were adopted to use against the citizen in shadow of covid-19 menace, Section 1(1) of the Ghana Public Order Act states that “Any person who desires to hold any special event within the meaning of this Act in any public place shall notify the police of his intention not less than 5 days before the date of the special event.” It continues in Subsection (2) and (3): “The notification shall be in writing and signed by or on behalf of the organisers of the special event and shall specify - (a) the place and hour of the special event, (b) the nature of the special event; (c) the time of commencement; (d) the proposed route and destination, if any; and (e) proposed time of closure of the event. (3) The notification shall be submitted to a police officer not below the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police or other police officer responsible for the nearest police station to the location of the proposed special event.

 

Subsection (4) and (5) of the Act further indicates: “Where a police officer notified of a special event under subsection (1) has reasonable grounds to believe that the special event if held may lead to violence or endanger public defence, public order, public safety, public health or the running of essential services or violate the rights and freedoms of other persons, he may request the organisers to postpone the special event to any other date or to the relocate the special event.

“An organiser requested under subsection (4) to postpone or relocate the holding of a special event shall within forty-eight hours of the request, notify the police officer in writing of his willingness to comply.

Where the organisers refuse to comply with the request under subsection (4) or fail to notify the police officer in accordance with subsection (5), the police officer may apply to any judge or a chairman of a Tribunal for an order to prohibit the holding of the special event on the proposed date or at the proposed location.

 

The judge or chairman may make such order as he considers to be reasonably required in the interest of defence, public order, public safety, public health, the running of essential services or to prevent violation of the rights and freedoms of other persons.

 

In lieu to the above, public act gave the police overwhelming power over the citizen and the right of union, association and social gathering have be systematically withhold in Ghana, and this subject to political victimization of citizens which are not in support of the government in power at any time, is a hug tool created to deal with erring citizen who always go against the policies of the government at any time. For the fact that, subsection (3) provided that a notification must be summited to the ASP is not a enough, the location must be approved and if not approved the citizen must see possible means to change venue for his gathering or unionism.  This act is subject to political victimization, political witch hunt and corruption because once the said organiser or organisers are opposition to the government in power their letter might not be approved for ever because the police working in lieu with the state will define the selected venue by the organizers not peaceful and violence prone and by this the right of the citizens have been denied. The whole Africa must rise to such an act adopted by the Ghana government against it citizens and global citizens. In recent time in (2020) in addition to citizens abuse, they have been stench abuse on other national in Ghana especially Nigerians.

 

The hand writing of political victimization can be seen in subsection 4 and 5 when a police officer needed to be notified of any event no matter how small, so that, in case the event may lead to violence or endanger public health. The question here is, if the event may be cancelled due to violence what then is the need of informing the police, is the police not supposed to be on standby and guide against the outbreak of violence, their presence alone supposed to deter any act of violence but no instead the association have to go through rigorous step to affirm their right after rigorous loyalty to the state. Ghana mobile.ghanaweb.com (2020) made us to under that since the post covid-19 lock down they have been massive human right abuse in Ghana especially in the area of free association, public gathering. The government of Nana Addo-kufo arrest and sent citizens to prison without fair hearing in the court and on number of occasions the instrument of the state ( the police and its allies strengthen death to the citizen ) for going against a law in Ghana.

 

CONCLUSION

The abuse of human right in west Africa and in Ghana has become alarming in recent years with no regard of which ever kind for the constitution, in most cases an act is made to stand superior than the constitution of the country something that is greatly unconstitutional just like the case of Ghana, the most prevalence abuse of human rights in Ghana is freedom of gathering and freedom of association, the Ghana public act almost denied the citizen the right to gathering and right to association with a rigorous procedures which they are not sure of meeting even after they have passed through the procedures. Democracy is badly operated in west Africa because the character of the democrat leaders go against the dictate of democracy, African must rise to put it democracy right by constantly reminding any government in power how it came to power and how to use such power. It is through constant criticism and evolution that west African and Ghana democracy might be better since there is no better arrangement yet for an alternative government and the Africa citizens are too fearful to confront an erring government with revolutionary act. Hence, the citizens must work for a better democracy which will allow a level ground for every citizen and global citizen in any area of the country.

 

 

REFERENCES

Ghana Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 (2013), Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202005120415.html

https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Greater-Accra-Regional-Police-Commander-threatens-to-deal-with-Ernesto-Yeboah-1031764

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_GhanaCountry Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019 United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

https://www.facebook.com/273509779795782/posts/934725140340906/?d=n