Improving access to justice critical for the attainment of SDGs–CCF Director

Accra, Dec. 18, GNA – Crime Check Foundation (CCF) has reminded stakeholders that improving access to justice and dealing with other issues that affect the poor and vulnerable groups are critical for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, the Executive Director, CCF, said in this regard, actions of State agencies and individuals acting for the State must be guided by these development goals even as they thrive to make the country a better place for all.

Mr Kwarteng was speaking during a media conference on the finding from the implementation of the Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws and Advocacy (DVLA) Project sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
The CCF-OSIWA Project seeks to increase public awareness of vagrancy laws, increase citizens’ monitoring of vagrancy laws and institutionalize engagements and actions on violations under these laws.

He said the project also focused on ‘vagrancy laws’ because these were laws that affect mostly the poor and voiceless.

“The Project is consistent with CCF’s quest to contribute to the reduction in prison congestion, SDG #16.3: Access to Justice for All by 2030, and a recent opinion ruling on ‘vagrancy laws’ delivered by the African Courts on Human and People’s Rights in 2020,” he said.

He said it was important that actual needs of ‘vagrants’ were factored into the development plans of Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and were delivered.

The Executive Director explained that lands or spaces meant for parks, refuse sites, markets, playgrounds, pavements, and parks should be protected and developed for the intended purpose in the interest of poor citizens.
As part of the finding, the Foundation recommended that sensitization on MMDA bye-laws for citizens should be prioritized and carried out.

“In this regard, other stakeholders such as media houses and local businesses should support efforts to improve citizens’ knowledge of the laws, consistent with SDG# 16.3: Access to Justice for All,” he added.

He, therefore, called for the passage of the Non-Custodial Sentencing Bill into Law to ensure that judges have other sentencing options such as community service, including sweeping and desilting of choked gutters, among others.
Mr Kwarteng said this was because the country’s prisons were congested with inmates living in deplorable conditions.

“We are, therefore, joining forces with the Media and other CSOs in this agenda to ensure this bill is passed to allow more judges to impose fines rather than just custodial sentences,” the Executive Director said.
He said monitoring findings because of the implementation revealed vagrants/poor persons lack knowledge provisions of the Assembly bye-laws that affect them.

Section 181 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) confers powers on MMDAs to make bye-laws for their local jurisdictions.

The Executive Director said, however, while citizens’ knowledge of the bye-laws and other relevant legal provisions were vital for compliance, the MMDAs were hardly able to provide education on the laws for their citizens.

He said part of the problem was that key local actors were not able to support education on the bye- laws of the assemblies though they were willing to do so.

“Under the project, Elected Assembly Members, Chiefs and Unit Committee members have expressed willingness to support sensitization on MMDA bye-laws at the community level,” he said.

Per the findings, it came out that lack of social amenities pushed voiceless citizens to break the law, because most of the homeless, truck pushers, commercial drivers and market women, among others, do not have access to basic social amenities such as toilet facilities, market spaces, and packing terminals, for instance.

As a result, they are pushed to engage in open defecation, sleep under bridges at night, or sell and pack at unauthorized places.

He said the rights of vagrants were abused daily in most MMDAs and this was evident in physical and emotional abuses of petty traders, poor and homeless truck pushers by the Assembly Task Force.

He said some of the Assemblies, which through their ‘guards’, busily engage in the seizure of goods, and motorbikes, from poor market women and boys on a typical business day.’

“It appears some of the Assemblies intentionally target vagrants as a source of revenue generation,” he added.
The Executive Director said the Foundation conducted sensitization on MMDA bye-laws directly for more than 1,200 citizens and stakeholders in the three project districts and engaged key Justice Sector Institutions on the project.

GNA