Resetting Ghana: Human Rights, Criminal Justice issues

Ghana chalked up yet another milestone in its democratic credentials by holding a peaceful election that has been the envy of not only our West African neighbours but the global community. 

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), under John Dramani Mahama, won a historic victory, largely on a campaign whose main message was to ‘reset Ghana’.

The overwhelming victory, therefore, could be attributed to the fact that the country bought into the ‘resetting agenda’.

Whilst the nitty-gritty of the areas which need resetting cannot be analysed and dissected here, for reasons of constraints of space, we bring to the attention of the incoming administration areas within the criminal justice and human rights sphere which we think should benefit from the ‘resetting agenda’.

Whilst conceding that the available space in a newspaper column such as this cannot do justice to the whole gamut of issues that need fixing within the criminal justice system, we will nevertheless endeavour to highlight areas that are in urgent need of resetting.

Arrests

We begin with the arrests as, for many, they are the gateway to the criminal justice system. The way arrests are effected in Ghana suffers from legal and procedural defects, as became clear in the wake of the arrests of the demonstrators of the Democracy Hub during the anti-galamsay protests.

Many of the rules governing arrests were blatantly disregarded and not followed: the right to be informed in a language one understands of the reasons for arrest; the right to allow arrested persons to contact relatives or friends regarding their arrest and place of detention; the right to counsel during police detention and questioning.

There has been a lot of sad anecdotal evidence of family members and friends of the arrested persons going from one police station to the other in search of their loved ones. It is our fervent hope that any reform of policing will include measures that will make such shameful illegal practices a thing of the past.

Another area which is ripe for reform is how arrested persons are interrogated at the police station. Many arrested persons are denied their basic right to a lawyer as obtained in both international and domestic law.

This right, which is so important, indeed sacrosanct and indispensable, is sadly honoured more in breach than in adherence.

As a result, a lot of miscarriages of justice occur because many arrested persons are subjected to police questioning without legal representation.

This gives unscrupulous policemen a field day in manipulating evidence against arrested persons, especially in high-profile cases where the police are under pressure to ‘deliver’ – secure convictions.

Some of the infractions include, but are not limited to, deception, coaxing, deprivation of food, torture, etc. which invariably lead to ‘confessions’.

Another long overdue reform should be the institution of compulsory audio/video recording of police interrogations.

This would help judges tremendously to determine the genuineness or otherwise of “confessions”.

In many instances at trial, accused persons make allegations of deception, coaxing, torture, manipulation and, in some cases, of being forced to sign or thumbprint statements that are subsequently denied by the police officers.

The issue then becomes one of the words of the policemen against that of the accused persons and, almost invariably, the court believes the testimony of the policemen.

It is our conviction that the right to counsel at the police station, coupled with the audio/video recording of the police interrogations would go a long way in assisting accused persons to have fair trials.

Issues

These fair trial issues are fundamental and crucial to any credible criminal justice system.

The punishment of persons found guilty of crimes in some cases involves incarceration, which leads to loss of liberty – a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. It is, therefore, absolutely imperative that every step in the chain – arrest, police questioning, trial, sentencing – is infused with due process.

It is with these thoughts in mind that I wind up this column for the year. A new government and a new year approach and we can all hope this provides an opportunity for Ghana to improve both economically and in the field of human rights and criminal justice.

A society is far more likely to excel on the world stage if the rights of the citizens are fully respected.

Wishing all my loyal readers a happy Christmas and a healthy new year. Afehyia pa and adieu!

The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: georgebshaw1@gmail.com