Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1986
GHANA
Ghana is governed by the Provisional National Defense Council
(PNDC) under the chairmanship of Flight Lieutenant Jerry
Rawlings, who seized power from the previous elected
Government on December 31, 1981. Under the Establishment
Proclamation issued January 11, 1982, the Council exercises
"all powers of government." In practice, government policy is
developed by Chairman Rawlings assisted by a number of close
advisers, both inside and outside government. The PNDC has
nine members and includes, aside from the Chairman (the lone
survivor of the seven original members), two serving military
officers (added in 1985) and seven civilians (including one
woman and one ex-military officer). The various government
ministries are headed by "Secretaries", each of whom is
subordinate to the respective PNDC member responsible for that
particular area of government. A network of Committees for
the Defense of the Revolution (CDR's) is designed as a channel
to transmit government policies to the citizens and,
theoretically, citizen concerns to the Government.
There are several security organizations in Ghana which report
to various sections of the Government, but all come under the
firm control of the PNDC. Most security cases of a political
nature are handled by the Bureau of National Investigation,
which reports to both the Ministry of the Interior and the
PNDC member responsible for security issues.
Starting in 1983, the Government adopted an exceptionally
austere economic recovery program in an effort to redress a
quarter century of economic mismanagement and political
instability which caused Ghana to decline from one of Africa's
most promising states to a condition of economic collapse and
poverty. Remedial measures have included a devaluation of
more than 5,000 percent in the cedi in less than 4 years.
Conducted in concert with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the recovery program appears to have had a positive
effect. The economic growth rate made a fourth consecutive
positive showing in 1986 (the growth rate for 1986 was
estimated at 5.1 percent), and triple digit inflation has been
reduced to between 20 and 25 percent .
Under Rawlings, the most noticeable improvement in human
rights has been the restoration of civil order after an
initial 18-month period of revolutionary excess in 1982 and
1983. Discipline has generally been instilled in the armed
forces and the police, but a number of coup plots came
primarily from members and former members of the armed forces.
In 1986 one coup attempt was publicly reported, and there were
several alleged attempts. Problems also continue with certain
paramilitary elements, such as the militia, which do not yet
seem firmly under government control.
Although the Government, through the National Commission on
Democracy, continued in 1986 to "study" means of restoring a
democratic system, there is still no guarantee of elections,
nor are there any current plans to provide for a relaxation of
government control of the main national newspapers and
broadcast news media. The potential for arbitrary deprivation
of liberty was demonstrated by continuing instances of
incarceration without formal charges and summary dismissal of
16 judges. A system of public tribunals, which parallels the
regular courts, failed to enforce procedural safeguards
adequate enough to constitute acceptable due process.
GHANA
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political Killing
No killing was reported in which there was evidence of political
motivation or governmental instigation.
b. Disappearance
No disappearance traceable to government action or to
nongovernmental or opposition forces was reported.
c. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment
There have been occasional credible allegations of torture
and/or beatings. Twice during 1985, the Government acknowledged
that some members of the armed forces beat detainees. In March
1986, during a series of trials of alleged coup plotters before
the public tribunals, a defendant alleged that he and a fellow
defendant had been tortured and, to prove his charge, stripped
to the waist in court to show the scars caused by the alleged
beatings. The Government has not refuted these allegations or
made any known attempt to investigate them.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Ghanaian security forces occasionally take persons into custody,
sometimes secretly late at night, with or without a warrant, and
hold them incommunicado for months. Some of those so detained
are said by government officials to have committed crimes,
although their only known "offense" is the expression of views
critical of, or different from, those of the Government. When
the Ghana Bar Association has attempted to free some of these
persons through writs of habeas corpus, the PNDC has either
stood aside and permitted their release or has interposed ex
post facto preventive custody orders barring their release and
citing national security considerations as justification.
In more routine criminal cases, detentions are generally
performed in accordance with the legal procedures set forth in
the criminal code. The criminal code requires that an arrested
person be brought before a court within 48 hours and authorizes
bail in many instances. Some writs of habeas corpus continued
to be granted in 1986, but habeas corpus is limited by a 1984
law which prevents any court from inquiring into the grounds for
the detention of any Ghanaian detained under PNDC Law 2 (the law
setting up the National Investigation Committee and giving that
Committee the power to investigate virtually any allegation
referred to it by the PNDC) .
On January 9, 1986 the last minister of the previous government
still being detained was released on bail. Some other officials
of the former government who fled Ghana in 1982 and 1983 have
quietly returned and resumed careers outside of politics,
reportedly convinced in at least some cases that the danger of
detention has now passed. Although the Government does not
announce detentions or releases, there were in 1986, as in
previous years, a number of prisoners in detention without
charge or trial. In April a group of four, including a student
political leader and a journalist, was detained by the
Government with no public explanation and without charges ever
being brought. They were not released until August and were the
subject of an Amnesty International Emergency Bulletin. In
August a former government minister, Victor Owusu, was taken
into detention, and at the end of 1986 no charges had been
announced against him, and no hearing had been held.
In August 1985, the Ghana Bar Association published a list of 17
detainees being held without charge, carefully noting that it
had published only the names of those for whom firm proof of
detention was available. The newspaper which published the list
has since been forced out of business, allegedly by governmental
restrictions on the provision of newsprint to that particular
paper .
Ghana prohibits forced labor, except in the cases of military
draftees and convicted criminals.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
Despite the creation of a separate judicial system in the form
of public tribunals and despite the lack of clear guidelines as
to which cases should go before the tribunals and which before
the regular courts, traditional legal safeguards based on
British legal practice, e.g., the right of defendants to present
evidence and to cross-examine witnesses, remains generally
available in the regular court system. This system includes
high courts, appeal courts, and a Supreme Court headed by a
Chief Justice. Serious questions have arisen, however, about
the independence of the regular courts. In April the PNDC
overturned one of its own decrees, which provided for full
hearings before a judge could be removed from office, and
summarily dismissed 16 judges including 2 judges of the Court of
Appeal (Ghana's second highest court). The PNDC alleged that
these judges were guilty of various forms of malfeasance in
office, but no formal charges were brought against then, and no
hearings were ever held. Many legal observers believe that, by
this action, the PNDC has put judges in the regular courts on
notice that judges serve at the sufferance of the PNDC and must
serve government purposes or be summarily removed from office.
The public tribunals system, set up in 1932 to parallel the
regular court system, includes the Office of Revenue
Commissioners, the National Investigations Committee, the
Special Military Tribunal, and the Public Tribunals Board, as
well as the public tribunals per se, which exist at the national
and regional levels and are planned for district and community
levels. The Government's announced purpose when it established
this system was to provide more justice to more people in a more
timely fashion by deemphasizing legal "technicalities." In 1985
a National Appeals Tribunal was created to hear appeals from the
public tribunals. Critics contend, however, that the system
still depends largely on judges with little or no legal
experience, that it shortcuts legal safeguards in an effort to
speed proceedings, and that it creates new opportunities for
corruption because of ambiguities in the jurisdiction between
the tribunals and the regular courts. Critics note, for
example, that the panels of presiding judges contain more laymen
than lawyers, that there are no published guidelines concerning
the admissibility of evidence, and that conviction is by
majority vote of the panel trying a case. Critics add that
meaningful appeals are impossible because no adequate record is
kept of initial hearings before tribunals, and judges on the
appeals panel are drawn from the same pool of "lay judges" who
hear the initial cases, which means some cases include judges
who actively participated in the initial hearing under appeal.
The members of the Ghana Bar Association, citing such
shortcomings, have elected not to practice before the tribunals,
and few lawyers are willing to appear in cases before them. In
1985 the Government approved the creation of a legal aid
program, but at the end of 1986 this program had yet to be
implemented .
In 1986 the public tribunals continued the PNDC policy of
imposing the death penalty for offenses that were essentially of
an economic, "white collar" nature. For example, three
government officials were sentenced to death by firing squad on
September 26 for embezzling government funds. In May, after
hearings before a Public Tribunal, nine people allegedly
involved in coup plotting, including those who had allegedly
been tortured during interrogation, were executed by firing
squad.
Amnesty International has adopted as a "prisoner of conscience"
a Ghanaian who was sentenced by a public tribunal to 16 years in
prison for complicity in a November 1982 coup attempt.
f , Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
The individual citizen is, for the most part, free from
interference by the State in his or her private conduct,
although some critics fear that the Committees for the Defense
of the Revolution (CDR's) have the potential to become
"neighborhood watch committees", analogous to the Cuban model.
However, while the Government holds that all citizens are
"members" of the CDR's, at present actual participation in the
system is voluntary. Monitoring of telephones and mail rarely
occurs. Forced entry into homes has been reported in connection
with security investigations. Informers exist, but informer
systems, so far as is known, are not widespread. There is no
forced resettlement of populations nor interference with the
right to marry or to have children or for parents to provide
religious instruction for their children.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The freedoms of speech and the press guaranteed under the now
suspended 1979 constitution stand abrogated, but the PNDC
Chairman has publicly encouraged people to speak out on local
community concerns, though not on government policy. The
Government owns the radio and television stations, as well as
the two principal daily newspapers. The press avoids criticism
of the revolution or of Chairman Rawlings. It focuses instead
on uncovering instances of waste, fraud, and mismanagement, even
when they involve relatively high-level officials (though such
are usually government inspired).
In the past several privately owned newspapers tried to be
relatively bold in their news coverage axid editorial comments,
but most of these newspapers, for various reasons, have since
closed down. Government actions against the press continued in
1986, e.g., by limiting supplies of newsprint to the independent
press, thereby reportedly forcing one of the most outspoken
newspapers into bankruptcy in early 1986. In December 1985, the
Government banned publication of the Catholic Standard on
political grounds. A church newespaper , the Standard was known
for its independent stand on human rights and other issues.
Despite efforts by the Catholic Church throughout 1986 to get
the Standard reopened, including public issuance of a Bishops'
communique on the subject in September, it remains under
government ban.
Academic freedom tends to be respected within the confines of
the campus. Private organizations voice occasional dissent from
official policies but are denied access to the media and have
difficulty reaching the public with their views.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Individuals are generally free to join together formally or
informally to promote nonviolent causes, but restrictions remain
on association for the purpose of protesting government
policies. Political meetings are banned. Permits are required
for public meetings but are routinely granted except when the
meeting has an overtly political purpose.
In 1986 the Trades Union Congress (TUC) continued to be led by
officials freely elected in December 1983. New elections are
slated for 1987. The TUC is associated with the International
Labor Organization and with the Organization of African Trade
Union Unity. The right to strike is recognized in law and in
practice in Ghana. Ghanaian trade unions freely engage in
collective bargaining with both private sector and state-owned
enterprises, though in the latter category there are indications
that the Government has, on occasion, used brief detentions and
threats against union leaders to force agreement on issues
involving state-owned enterprises. In April 1986, the TUC
threatened to call a general strike, charging that the
Government had changed wage and benefits policy unilaterally and
negated the principle of free collective bargaining. Senior
PNDC officials intervened to resolve the problem, and the
Government now seems to be encouraging greater dialogue with the
unions .
c. Freedom of Religion
There is no state-favored religion and no restriction on the
exercise of religion or on contacts with others of the same
faith, though as the Catholic Standard case indicates, the
Government will not hesitate to ban religious publications for
alleged political content. Most Ghanaians, including senior
government officials, are practicing members of religious
groups. Foreign missionary groups operate freely throughout the
country, though the "profusion" of such groups has come under
criticism from the PNDC Chairman.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
People are free to move from one part of the country to another
without special permission. Since 1983 some diplomats have been
required to give 48 hours' notice before traveling outside the
greater Accra region. Police roadblocks continue to exist
countrywide, allegedly for the prevention of smuggling, but are
less obtrusive than in the 1982-84 period. Roadblocks and car
searches are still a normal part of nighttime travel in Accra,
but are no longer conducted during the day.
As members of the Economic Community of West African States,
Ghanaians are free to travel without visas for up to 90 days
anywhere in West Africa. Ghanaians are generally free to
exercise this right, and nationals of other member states are
free to travel to Ghana. However, the Ghana/Togo border is
Still closed following allegations of Ghanaian involvement in a
September coup attempt against the Government of Togo. The
major restraints on travel by Ghanaians are lack of foreign
exchange and long delays in the issuance of passports.
Ghanaians are free to emigrate or to be repatriated from other
countries. If a person is considered a security threat, special
permission must be obtained.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
The PNDC under Chairman Rawlings exercises total executive,
legislative, judicial, and administrative power in Ghana (PNDC
Law 42). There are no other governing organs and no current
procedure by which citizens can freely and peacefully change
their laws, officials, or form of government. A panel to design
new democratic structures to eventually replace Ghana's existing
provisional system is in existence but has yet to publish any of
its deliberations or a timetable. Efforts to give substance to
the revolutionary slogan, "Power to the People", include
elections for leadership positions at the local level to the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. These efforts
were purportedly intended to culminate in July 1986 with a
National CDR Conference, but organizing difficulties limited the
1986 CDR meetings to the regional level. Thus far, indications
suggest that these CDR elections have been relatively free and
open, but that the CDR's do not seem to be drawing support from
a wide spectrum of the population. No claim is made by the
Government, however, that these committees are meant to take the
place of either elected local or national governing bodies.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
The Government cooperates with the International Committee of
the Red Cross which continued its visits to prisons in Ghana in
1986. There are several internal groups concerned with human
rights, and they tend to be objective but not especially vocal
or effective in their reporting. Nevertheless, various
independent groups and organizations have worked for and have
sometimes succeeded in gaining the release of persons from
custody. Official human rights inquiries may be answered at
various levels, including by cabinet secretaries. In 1986 no
international human rights organization sent representatives to
Ghana, although Amnesty International issued an urgent bulletin
about certain individuals held in detention without charge.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Language, or Social Status
Discrimination based on race, language, religion, or social
status is not a problem in Ghana. Women's rights in business,
the civil service, and the home have long been well established
and respected. One woman serves as a member of the ruling
PNDC. There is one woman in the Cabinet, and at least six women
hold subcabinet positions. Although women in urban centers and
those who have entered modern society encounter little bias in
most endeavors, role pressures do exist. Women in the rural
agricultural sector remain subject to the constraints associated
with traditional male-dominant mores, in spite of efforts by the
Government and more enlightened elements in the society to
curtail such practices. In 1985 the Government promulgated four
laws which overturned many of the discriminatory customary,
traditional, and colonial laws, i.e., concerning family
accountability, intestate succession, customary divorce
registrations, and the administration of estates.
CONDITIONS OF LABOR
Working conditions in Ghana are governed by labor legislation
which specifically prohibits forced labor, sets a minimum
employment age of 15, and prohibits night work and certain types
of hazardous employment for those under 18 years of age.
Government directives establish a minimum normal wage and,
through both directives and union contracts, the normal hours of
work are defined in terms of a 40-hour week. Labor legislation
also provides for labor inspectors and gives them the power to
order the alteration or closing of any work site "to avert any
threat to the health or safety of the workers." Terms of
employment and protection against arbitrary discharge are also
covered by existing legislation.
