Ghanaian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have earned the recognition of the United Nations 177th Session on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) for its immense contribution to the review of Ghana’s implementation of the ICCPR.
The CSOs earned the recognition from the Human Rights Committee during the ICCPR in Geneva, Switzerland.
A statement signed on behalf of the participating CSO by Ms Wendy Abbey, Technical Advisor at the Human Rights Advocacy Centre, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said after more than a decade of delay, Ghana submitted its first report on the implementation of the ICCPR to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2014.
As part of the review process, a cross section of CSOs submitted a report in response to the list of issues adopted by the HR Committee to contribute to the review of Ghana from a civil society perspective.
It shows how civil society in Ghana is proactive in utilizing the current enabling environment of free and active participation in human rights, governance and development issues in Ghana.
The statement said the ICCPR identified civil society as the only visible and reliable actor that could provide a balanced perspective to the human rights situation in a country and the extent to which the state was committed to realising the covenant right.
It said: “CSO remains the sole conduit for raising awareness on Ghana’s obligations under the Covenant, building capacity for monitoring and evaluation, and reporting to the UN on progress made alongside the State”.
The Human Rights Committee review on Ghana include queries on how the state is progressing on fulfilling articles of Covenant’s rights of citizens on non-discrimination and equality among men and women, freedom of expression and access to information, prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment and right to life.
The statement said CSOs priority related to queries on when government intended to pass the Right to Information Bill, Affirmative Action Bill and abolish the death penalty.
It also focuses on how government would address human rights abuses against persons with mental illness at prayer camps and ensure protection of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) from discrimination, especially with reference to accessibility of public buildings.
The Committee also queried government on how it intends to improve conditions at prisons and address the issue of juveniles held in adult prisons.
The UN views Civil Society as the “third sector” in the international community which helps in advancing the ideals of the human rights and international best practices, the statement said.
It has, therefore, created a relationship which grants CSOs the opportunity to be directly involved in assessing the impact of the work of the UN bodies and to promote their work at national and local levels.
The statement said state parties are also able to depend on data, research and cases cited in reports to carry out evidence-based assessment on the conditions of their populations, some of which formed the basis for advocacy and policy reforms.
Ghana ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2000.
The Human Rights Advocacy Centre, in collaboration with the Centre for Civil and Political Rights, consulted with CSOs in Accra during three different meetings from March to May, 2016 where they validated a parallel civil society report in response to the List of Issues.
The participation of CSOs from Ghana in the 177th Session of the Human Rights Committee on the ICCPR came as a sequel to a year-long work amongst a cross section of Accra-based CSOs.
Source: GNA