Amnesty International’s World Human Rights 2023 report launched in Accra has revealed that 184 convicts are currently on death row in the country and stated further that the convicts include 7 women and 10 nationals from other countries.
Speaking of the launch in Accra, the Board Vice Chairman of Amnesty International Ghana, Madam Charity Batuure, urged government to commute death sentences into life and advised that pragmatic measures must be put in place for total abolition of the death penalty.
According to her, Ghana since 1993 have not engage in executions and therefore urged government to put in place the needed policies to have the death penalty abolish completely in the statutory books of the country.
The report in these regard also touched on women’s and girls’ rights, witch craft accusations, excessive use of force by the security among others. Participants included representatives (Civil Society Organization (CSOs), Members of Parliament (MPS), Academia, Queen mothers as well as reps from the political parties.
Madam Genevieve Partington, the Director of Amnesty International, called on government to fast track the bill in criminalizing witch craft accusation and commended also the passage of the Narcotic Control Commission Bill adding that the passage of the Affirmative Active Bill be quickly worked upon in the bid to allow women to be part of the decision-making process in the public sector.
She however urged the media, players in the civil society and stakeholders in the human rights space to network among each other as part of the drive to champion the rights of the citizens.
For his part, the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Mr. Joseph Whittal called on government particularly parliamentarians to expedite action on the passage of the Affirmation Action Bill and other pressing issues bothering on human rights to safe guard the citizenry.
Report by Ben LARYEA
