Constitution guarantees human rights - Oye

Accra, Nov., 22, GNA - The Constitution of Ghana guarantees the respect for human rights of all citizens and it was sad that only few people were aware of that, a human rights activist, Nana Oye Lithur said on Wednesday.

She, therefore, called for more education on human rights provisions in the Constitution to curb human rights abuses. Nana Oye was speaking at a day's workshop on Human Rights Reporting organised for 40 media personnel in Accra under the theme; "Women and the Justice System". It was collaboration between Journalists for Human Rights in Accra and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The journalists were taken through topics such as: "The Peculiar Issues Women are Likely to Bring to the Justice System"; "The Challenges Women and Children Face in Accessing the Justice System" and "How Journalists can Report on Intelligence and Authority on Issues Pertaining to Women and Children and the Justice System." Quoting from a survey conducted by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) conducted in Accra on 2,000 respondents in 2002, Nana Oye said 71 per cent of respondents had not seen a copy of the Constitution.

"On the knowledge of the basic human rights issues 90.3 per cent could not immediately recall the chapter of the Constitution which deals with human rights.

"Many people's rights have been infringed and trampled upon because they do not kwon their rights", she stated.

Of the 28.3 per cent respondents that claimed to have seen a copy of the Constitution only 16.8 per cent had read parts of the Constitution, only 5.9 possessed personal copies of the Constitution and 13.5 per cent had seen a copy of the abridged version of the Constitution.

Nana Oye mentioned that with respect to accessibility to the Constitution 44.7 per cent said they did not know whether the Constitution is accessible and had never attempted to access it and 12.7 per cent said it was inaccessible.

Nana Oye said the cost of justice was too expensive adding the filing fess were not affordable, which made it harder to gain access to justice, even though there were a number of legal aid schemes in the country.

"It is sometimes difficult for women to enforce judgement they obtained particularly in property settlement cases with their spouses." She, therefore, called on the media and other stakeholders to help to address challenges confronting women through the review of some laws. Nana Oye said the Government should provide more funding to strengthen public institutions such as the Department of Social Welfare. 22 Nov. 06