All around the world the right to protest is under attack and that is why Amnesty International launched its campaign on “Protect the Protest” to engage with security forces and protestors on the right to peaceful assembly.
In July this year, our Kenyan brothers and sisters took to the streets for weeks demanding an end to bad governance, corruption and for President Ruto to step down. It is the same way several Ghanaians took t the streets on 22nd and 23rd September to demand the government to take action on illegal mining (Galamsey) which is currently dirtying our water bodies and causing serious health issues in several communities.
This is why Amnesty International Ghana is condemning the current unlawful actions by the Ghana Police Service regarding the detained protestors of the #StopGalamseyNow and #reoccupyJulorbiHouse demonstration.
Both Protestors and non-protestors are being held in several police stations across the country without access to basic human rights and as we speak, they have been on rotation to different police stations in Accra. They are being denied access to legal counsel, and access to basic human rights.
According to the Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, thirty-nine (39) individuals were arrested between 22nd and 23rd September and were put to court on 24th September. Out of the 39, twenty-eight (28) have been remanded into police custody, and eleven (11) into prison custody. 30 of the accused persons are scheduled to reappear before the court on 8th October and 9 others are to appear in court on 11th October 2024.
News has reached us that there have been additional arrests of people related to the demonstration on 24th and 25th September respectively.
What was their crime? To call on the Government of Ghana to take immediate action against illegal mining that has destroyed our water bodies and caused alarming health related problems in several communities.
The Government is claiming that protestors destroyed property and acted inappropriately during the said protests, hence arrested them. Even if they did wrong, the arrested persons are entitled to the fundamental human rights embedded in our 1992 constitution. Some of the people being held have serious health conditions and there is news that they are not being given the necessary medical attention.
What needs to be done to effect change:
- Changing the narrative on the word Protest.
When security forces hear this word, they tend to relate it to aggression, public disorder, which is an assumption and not fact. Protest is equal to peaceful demonstration.
- Review of the Public Order Act 1994, 491
NRCD law 68 dealt with demonstrations and at first persons/groups needed a permit to demonstrate. This law was repealed after the Public Order Act 491 came into action.
There are clear issues in the Act, and it gives the security forces, specifically the police too much power over potential demonstrators.
The Act should be amended to give a reasonable timeline that the police can apply to Court to restrain persons intending to demonstrate.
There also needs to be a Review of Section 9 that deals with Offence and Penalties.
- Amnesty International Ghana will continue to educate the public on their right to protest and how to be safe during protests.
Amnesty International Ghana is making the following demands:
- Detained protestors need to be granted basic access to food, water and hygiene products. Access to legal counsel and medical assessment and treatment. If you keep shifting them around, how do we get access to them?
- A comprehensive list of all detained protestors and where they are stationed so we can be granted access to them, so they receive the necessary care and basic human rights.
- We are also appealing that all who were unlawfully arrested be compensated according to the law of Ghana.
- An independent investigation must be conducted, and actions taken to ensure that such injustice and inhumane treatments to citizens of the Republic of Ghana do not happen again.
We should not put unnecessary restraints in the way of persons who intend to exercise their constitutional right.
We should not put unnecessary restraints in the way of persons who intend to exercise their constitutional right.
Genevieve Partington , Country Director Amnesty International Ghana
It’s time the Government took these issues seriously and ensure law and order as we approach the elections in December.
As there are several government officials at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, they should use this time reflect on the shrinking civic space in Ghana and take concrete steps to protect the human rights of all persons in Ghana.