Postal Packets and Communications Bill oppressive legislation — GBA
The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has described the Postal Packets and Communications Bill in its current form as an oppressive piece of legislation.
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It has, therefore, cautioned against passing it in its current form, as the law could lend itself to a constitutional challenge.
That, it said, was in view of the powers granted to the National Security Co-ordinator to intercept telecommunication messages and postal packages without an order of a court.
“Thus, we find that the bill in its current form is unacceptable. The proposed deferral of the court order or warrant for 48 hours would mean that there is no guarantee against abuse during this period of secret surveillance, which is based only on an oral authorisation issued by the National Security Co-ordinator,” the GBA said in a statement signed by its President, Mr Benson Nutsukpui, which was sent to Parliament.
The GBA noted with concern that such an arrangement would be a clear violation of Article 18 of the Constitution and, therefore, recommended its deletion and the maintenance of the current position where there could be no interception without a court order or warrant.
No means of verifying information
The statement said there appeared not to be any way or means of verifying whether information to be presented to the court under such circumstances would have indeed been obtained within or outside the 58-hour period, since that message would have been gathered with no supervision or reference to any other person except the National Security Co-ordinator.
It affirmed that the current legal position that required a court order or warrant before any interception provided, at least, gave a semblance of protection against arbitrary and unconstitutional interference.
“We need to find ways to strengthen this, instead of taking away or deferring it. This is because of the right to privacy being an undoubted fundamental and inalienable right; the attitude of the Constitution is to give it the most absolute form of protection subject only to the well-known exceptions that permit limited interference with it in the interest of the public, such as the prevention of crime,” the GBA asserted.
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Consider other statutes
It further called on Parliament to consider several other statutes that contained protection of privacy and secrecy provisions and how those might or might not be affected by the Bill.
It, however, added that it welcomed the attempt to consolidate the existing provisions on the lawful interception of communications or correspondence that were scattered in various formats in several statutes.
“We, therefore, suggest that all the current statutes on lawful interception are specifically harmonised within the context of the current bill, and the relevant repeals and revocations done to avoid legislative confusion and disharmony,” it added.