By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Sept. 5, GNA – The Tema Sub-Regional Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says it has received 2,369 cases in all mandate areas in the last 29 years.
Mr. John Ato Breboh, Senior Principal Investigator, stated during engagement with the Ghana News Agency that out of the figure, human rights cases received between April 1994 and June 2023 were 2,063, while 306 were for administrative justice and anti-corruption.
Mr. Breboh said this when he, together with Mrs. Annan Adumuah, Principal Registrar, and Mrs. Dzifa Adatsi, an investigator at the CHRAJ Tema Office, as part of the Commission’s 30th anniversary celebration, interacted with staff of the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office.
The general theme for the celebration is “CHRAJ at 30: Promoting and Protecting Human Rights and Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in Public Service Delivery. His presentation was on the sub-theme “Presentation on 30 Years of CHRAJ in Tema: Success, Challenges, and the Way Forward.”
He said CHRAJ was established under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana by the CHRAJ Act, 1993 (Act 456) with three broad mandates of human rights, administrative justice, and anti-corruption-related issues.
He said between 1994 and 2006, the Commission received more labour-related cases, which constituted about 60–63 percent of its annual cases received.
He added that the coming into force of the Labour Act 2003 (ACT 651) and the establishment of the National Labour Commission under Section 135 of the Labour Act 2003 (ACT 651) to facilitate and settle labour and industrial disputes resulted in the office having fewer labour-related cases.
He indicated that from 2010 until date, most of the 331 cases the Commission received in Tema were classified into children’s rights, women’s rights, and property rights-related cases.
Mr. Breboh said complaints regarding economic, social, and cultural cases were relatively high, while a few civil and political rights, which were predominantly human rights-related, and a few administrative justice-related, were also received over the period.
He stated that the children’s rights complaints were mainly about failure to pay remittances for the provision of necessities of life for the child, including food, education, health, clothing, and shelter.
He said complaints regarding custody and inhuman treatment under the children’s rights cases were relatively high, as a total of 96 complaints were classified under Children’s Rights, constituting 30.3 percent of the total human rights complaints recorded.
The Senior Principal Investigator said complaints under the women’s rights category were predominantly violence against women, reproductive health rights, and access to necessaries of life such as food, clothing, and shelter.
He disclosed that 39 women’s rights complaints, constituting 12.3 percent of total human rights complaints, were received under this category, while 52 complaints, constituting 16.4 percent of total human rights complaints, were classified under property rights.
He noted that under the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR) category, complaints reported were mainly associated with labour-related rights in private organisations and issues pertaining to discrimination.
This category saw 122 complaints, constituting 38.5 percent of total human rights complaints, while civil and political rights cases received eight complaints, representing 2.5 percent of the total cases, adding that they were mostly harassment and the right to dignity.
According to the Senior Principal Investigator, 14 administrative justice complaints were received between 2010 and June 2023.
GNA