Human rights group CHRI raises concern over poor access to justice in Ghana
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has expressed worry over difficulties confronting the poor and the vulnerable people to gain access to justice in Ghana.
“A significant majority of Ghana’s population live outside the protection of the law, their poverty being a reason and consequence of their lack of effective legal rights”, said CHRI in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency on Friday.
The CHRI said the situation was even more desperate in the face of lack of effective legal representation, especially on subjects of criminal justice, the wide powers of the Police, the failures within magisterial practice and ineffective and inefficient legal aid machinery.
Article 14 (2) of the Ghana’s Constitution that protects every individual from arbitrary arrest, provides that a person who is arrested, restricted and detained shall be informed immediately; in a language that he understands, of the reasons for his arrest and of his right to a lawyer of his choice.
But the statement signed by Mr Derek Poku-Aduhene, Project Officer at the CHRI Africa Office in Accra, said: “there exists an enormous gap between theory and reality. In practice, the police station, which is the entry point of criminal justice delivery, unfortunately has become a place where the rights of arrested… indigent persons are violated and abused”.
The CHRI noted that as enforcers of the law, the Police were to protect the innocent, find the guilty and bring them to trial.
It added that people expected the Police to act righteously and rigorously in defence of the rule of law.
“Sadly, the police in the country are often cited for wrongdoings that range from individual misbehavior to institutional criminality”, said CHRI.
The CHRI identified some complaints cited against the Police as routine disregard for correct procedure, brutality and torture, corruption, bias and discrimination against the most vulnerable groups such as the poor, women and children.
According to the CHRI, it has for the past three years been offering legal assistance to poor persons arrested at selected Police stations in Accra and Kumasi.
It expressed worry that a significant number of suspects in Police cells experienced detention without charge for periods longer than the requisite 48 hours.
It cited a case in which the suspect spent two years in detention without any charge and when the investigator was questioned, he responded that the suspect was assisting with investigations for an alleged robbery.
The CHRI said the suspect was neither taken to court nor was any proper investigation conducted to resolve the case.
“The consequence of bad policing does not only undermine the rule of law but also impedes development of the nation”, CHRI said.
It noted that though access to justice thrived on an effective and fully-functional court system however that contradicted the practical situation in Ghana, saying “the courts are few, poorly distributed, resourced and incapable of providing justice to everyone”.
The CHRI said the problem had been further compounded by several challenges such as payment of high filing fees at the courts, delays in filing cases and State Attorneys/Police Prosecutors abusing legal procedures in the prosecution of cases.
The CHRI also accused some judges at some courts for refusing to grant bail to suspects in minor offences even though the law clearly mandates that bail be granted subject to certain conditions.
It said in some instances, suspects were detained for indefinite periods due to lapses in the criminal justice system, adding the CHRI handled a case where three suspects were remanded and spent three years in detention as a result of such lapses.
The CHRI quoted the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s official website as saying, “the Attorney-General exists to entrench at the core of the body politic abiding respect for the Rule of Law and a constant observance of human rights, to ensure equality of access to justice and treatment before the law for all citizens, to promote by law social justice to facilitate the operations of a fair, efficient and transparent legal system and to propagate a culture of due process and legality for these purposes.
“The Ministry acts as the defender of the constitutional order, the guarantor of the rights and liberties of the citizens… and the championing of the rule of law”.
However, the CHRI said the institution set up to champion the rule of law had failed to live up to expectation, saying “…state prosecutors have failed to show up at the courts even when they have been served with notices.
“In some instances, dockets of suspects cannot be traced which makes it impossible for inmates to have a fair and speedy trial”, the statement added.
The CHRI said some staff at the Attorney-General’s Department had shown unprofessional behaviour towards suspects presumed to be innocent.
It said the failure of the legal system to guarantee effective access to justice had manifold consequences socially, politically and economically.
Source: GNA