African Union Special Rapporteur to visit Ghana

The African Union (AU) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Ms Pansy Tlakula is to pay a three-day working visit to Ghana to interact with governmental officials, civil society activists, politicians and media practitioners on Ghana’s Right to Information Bill.

The AU Special Rapporteur will meet with Leadership of Parliament; Minister of Information and Media Relations; Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection; AU Special Rapporteur; and the Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

The Ghana Coalition on Right to Information who is hosting the Special Rapporteur in a statement to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday explained that Ms Tlakula’s visit is to find out about the state of the RTI Bill.

In Ghana though the RTI Bill has been in existence since 2002, it has still not been passed into law.

The Coalition is convinced that it is a necessary pillar for the exercise of democratic governance, the RTI law should be a matter of priority for the Government.

The Coalition since its establishment in 2003, has undertaken several projects to raise awareness on the right to information and campaign for greater transparency.

The objective of its activities is to bring together a diverse network of civil society actors, policy makers, and government workers in an effort to firmly place RTI on the national agenda, and to sensitise the public, as the primary beneficiaries of the law, on the importance of the successful passage of the RTI law in Ghana.

The Coalition recognises that its effort at lobbying the Government and campaign the society at large is a strong task that needs the input of civil society as a whole.

It, therefore, welcomes all interested stakeholders to join the Coalition in this mission to make the right to information a living reality for the people of Ghana.

Meanwhile, the profile of Ms Tlakula obtained by the Ghana News Agency in Accra indicates that she is the current Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

She holds an LLB degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, an LLM degree from Harvard University, and an honorary doctorate in legal studies from the Vaal University of Technology.

She is an admitted advocate of the High Court of South Africa.

She joined the South African Electoral Commission in February 2002 as Chief Electoral Officer and served in this position until her appointment as Chairperson of the Commission.

Before that, she was a member of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for six years. During her period in office, she served as the co-convenor of the first National Conference on Racism.

She represented the SAHRC at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. She is also the former National Director of the Black Lawyers Association.

She served as the Chairperson of the Council of the University of the North-West from 1997 to 2003. She was also Chairperson of the board of the National Credit Regulator.

She is the Chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology and also serves on the Board of the Bidvest Group Ltd.

In July 2005, she was appointed as a member of the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. Her portfolio in the Commission is the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, and she is also responsible for the Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, South Sudan and Sierra Leone.

Ms Tlakula has received a number of awards including the Rapport / City Press Prestige Woman in 2006 and the 2007 CEO Magazine Most Influential Woman award in the category of Government and related institutions and the Black Business Executive Circle Chairman's award in 2011.