The attached 13 March 1992 Amnesty International report gives a definition of both the Public Tribunal Law (PNDC Law 24) of 1982 and its 1984 amendment (PNDC Law 78), and also explains the circumstances under which these laws were established by the Ghanaian military government (1-2). For further information on these laws, please refer to the 31 January 1992 Africa Watch report Ghana: Revolutionary Injustice: Abuse of the Legal System Under the PNDC Government, which is available in all Regional Documentation Centres.

According to Amnesty International Report 1994, in July 1993, the Ghanaian parliament abolished the national public tribunal system established under the 1982 PNDC Law 24 of 1982 (1994, 139). The same source added that verdicts handed down in these courts can be appealed to higher courts in the country's regular judicial system (ibid.). According to Country Reports 1993, "the judiciary is in transition as the former public tribunals are being phased out as they finish pending cases" (1994, 113).

The attached excerpt from Ghana–Profiles of Asylum Claims & Country Conditions provides information on certain categories of persons who received amnesties in January 1994.

Please also refer to Responses to Information Requests GHA20272 of 29 May 1995, GHA15125 of 14 September 1993 and GHA13492 of 15 March 1993 for further information on the public tribunals system.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Amnesty International. 1994. Amnesty International Report 1994. New York: Amnesty International USA.

_____. 13 March 1992. Ghana: Two Sentenced to Death for Murder. (AI Index: AFR 28/02/92). London: Amnesty International.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993. 1994. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office

Amnesty International. 13 March 1992. Ghana: Two Sentenced to Death for Murder. (AI Index: AFR 28/02/92). London: Amnesty International, pp. 1-2.

Office of Asylum Affairs (OAA), Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. June 1994. Ghana: Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions. Washington, DC: United States Department of State, pp. 1-3.