Stocktaking: CHRAJ @ 30

Introduction

Stocktaking is an essential ac­tivity conducted by entities such as individuals, institutions, companies and enterprises to assess their sit­uation and take firm decisions on the way forward. Such assessment provides avenue for rejuvenation, alignment and properly catching glimpse of the state of affairs.

Ghana’s Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice referred to as “The Commission” or CHRAJ, was birthed 30 years ago when it found expression in the 1992 constitution under Article 216 which indicated its establishment six months after the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution. Accord­ingly, the first President of the 4th Republic, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings duly assented to the CHRAJ Act, 1993 [Act 456] on July 6, 1993 to establish CHRAJ.

On the July 6, 2023, CHRAJ as a creation of the 1992 Constitution, attained thirty years in existence setting standards and best practic­es in the country and curving a niche for itself globally having worked to sustain a category “A” Status per Global Alliance of Nation­al Human Rights Institutions’ (GANHRI) Accreditation, a status that deem the Com­mission to be fully compliant with the Paris Principles.

Brief History of CHRAJ

CHRAJ operates from Ghana’s Old Parliament House, an edifice that, hitherto, had hosted Members of Parliament (MPs) from the First, Second and Third Republics consecutively. The Commission’s maiden Governing Council comprised Justice Emile Short (a private legal practitioner who had practised in Cape Coast since 1974, after carving out a niche for himself locally by serving on the human rights committee of the Central Region Bar Association), Angelina Mornah Domakyaareh now a Justice of the Court of Appeal, and the late Mr Benjamin Oppong, a private legal practitioner then. This Council together with a handful of staff absorbed from the Ombudsman office that was abolished and converted to form CHRAJ began the operations of CHRAJ. A few university graduates, lawyers and retired police officers were also appointed as investigators and support staff to play various roles due to the budgetary allocation and manpower re­cruitment ceiling by the Management Services Division under the office of the Head of Civil Service. This was seen as a non-starter by Justice Emile Short if the Commission was to operate efficiently.

This notwithstanding, the Commission members worked hard to build credibility for the Commission in an infant 1992 demo­cratic rule that had just migrated from an authoritarian regime. This was eminent in the Commission’s very first high-profile case in 1996, when some private newspapers made allegations of corruption, illegal acquisition of wealth and abuse of office against three Public officials in the first term of the Raw­lings administration; Presidential Advisor on cocoa affairs, the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Food and Agriculture. This was a period when Ghana had just begun its Fourth Republic Democratic Rule and public officers were starting to internalise the tenets of de­mocracy. All three officials were cleared. This case represented the first time in Ghanaian history that an incumbent government faced investigations, earning CHRAJ a reputation as a truly Independent Body.

Within a year in operation, the Commis­sion created 28 offices in all the 10 regional capitals then and submitted its first annual report to Parliament in 1994 in accordance with the provisions of Article 218(g) of the 1992 Constitution and section 7(1) (h) of the CHRAJ Act.

Initial cases to CHRAJ as expected were complaints mainly on human rights abuses from the military rule dispensation such as retrenchments and acts of victimisation as well as improper confiscation of assets. This added up to a backlog of cases from the Ombudsman’s office and summed up to 3,197 received cases with 333 cases carried over from the Ombudsman office, (source: chraj 1993 annual report). The 3,197 cases received also included labor related disputes; wrong­ful dismissals, end – of -service benefits and termination of appointments.

In 2004, the Commissioner of CHRAJ, Justice Emile Short was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to be the Ad Litem Judge with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. He took an indefinite leave handing the Chair of the CHRAJ Governing Council in an Acting Capacity to Ms Anna Bossman, also a legal practitioner, a bilingual with fluent French accent who built on the work of Justice Short to become “The Toast of the Media”.

As at 2023, the Commission has expanded its operational structure from four Depart­ments (Operations, Legal, Administration and Finance) to ten departments (Human Rights, Administrative Justice, Anti-Corruption, Re­search, Public Education, Investigations, Legal Services, Human Resources and Administra­tion, Finance and Budget).

There are also eight autonomous Units namely Audit, International Coorporation, Programme and Projects, Strategic Manage­ment and Innovations, Corporate Affairs and Communications, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Procurement and Logistics respectively.

These Departments and Units have been created to support the expanding work of the Commission and the need to redefine its scope of work and to better place aspects of its work that were being handled in bits by different Departments and Units under one Department/Unit.

The Commission has also increased its visi­bility in all the 16 regions to bring its services, which are free, to the doorstep of all Gha­naians in line with Section 10 of the CHRAJ ACT which makes provision for the creation of CHRAJ offices in all regions and district capitals in Ghana. Additionally, two sub-re­gional offices have been created in Tema and Obuasi due to sprouting industrialisation and commercial activities likely to record human rights violations in such areas.

Mandates of CHRAJ

By the Commission’s enabling law, Act 456 pursuant to Article 218 of the 1992, CHRAJ is Ghana’s National Human Rights Commis­sion which promotes and protects fundamen­tal human rights and freedoms of all persons in Ghana; the Ombudsman for the Public Service, to check maladministration in Public Service; and an Anti-corruption Agency, to curb corruption in Ghana.

The rationale behind this hybrid system stems from the Paris Principles; an interna­tional standard for National Human Rights Institutions, that indicates how National Human Rights Institutions in developing countries be given a broad mandate within their Constitutions, so they use their limit­ed resources to the greatest possible effect. Again, issues of maladministration and corruption often occur in sync with human rights abuses. CHRAJ, therefore, provides a “one-stop” service across a range of issues. It offers economies of scale, avoids addition­al infrastructural costs to the country and leverage synergies with far fetching benefits to the country in working more cooperatively on complaints that straddle around the three mandates.

These withstanding, inadequate funding by the government has arguably been a limitation to the realisation of such broad mandates. Donor partners such as the Hans Seidel Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the British Council, the German embassy, the Netherlands embassy, the UNDP, Star Ghana, ARAP, EU, Crossroads International, The Danish Institute for Human Rights, Amnesty International, OXFAM and others have sup­ported CHRAJ through various cooperations.

Functions of the Commission

CHRAJ is primarily an Investigative Body which investigates in line with its mandates:

1.Complaints of violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms from practices and actions of persons, private enterprises and institutions that violate fundamental human rights and freedoms as outlined in chapter five (5) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

2. Complaints of Administrative injustice (maladministration) and unfair treatment of any person by a public officer in the exercise of their official duties under articles 23 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and concerning the functioning of the Public Ser­vices Commission, the Administrative Organs of the State, the offices of the Regional Co­ordinating Council and the District Assembly, the Armed Forces, the Police Service and the Prison Service in so far as the complaints relate to the failure to achieve a balanced structuring of those services or fair adminis­tration in relation to those services;

3. Complaints of Corruption, abuse of power, and contravention of the Code of Conduct of Public Officers under Chapter 24 of the 1992 Constitution. The Commission handles the above cases by taking appropriate action to call for their remedying, correction and reversal through such means as are fair, proper and effective, including:

(i) Negotiations and compromise between the parties concerned and;

(ii) Causing the complaint and its finding on it to be reported to the superior of an offending person;

(iii) Bringing proceedings in a competent Court for remedy to secure the termination of the offending action or conduct, or the abandonment or alteration of the offending procedures; and

(iv) Bringing proceedings to restrain regula­tion by challenging its validity if the offending action or conduct is sought to be justified by subordinating legislation or regulation which is unreasonable or otherwise ultra vires.

4. The Commission also educates the public as to their human rights and freedoms by such means as the Commissioner may decide, including publications, lectures and symposia.

5.The Commission works to support Government to ensure monitoring, implemen­tation; and addressing at the national level, core human rights concerns such as torture, arbitrariness, and victimization; contributing to eradicate all forms of discrimination.

6. It also takes on new roles as new legisla­tions are adopted. For example:

I. The Juvenile Justice Act 2003 (Act 653); Section 42(2) provides that: “The Com­mission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice may visit and inspect any centre.”

II. The Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694); Section 6 of Act 694 provides as follows: “A person with information about trafficking (a) shall inform the police, or (b) The Commission on Human Rights and Ad­ministrative Justice’’.

III. Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands Act, 1994 (Act 481) Section 8(2) pro­vides as follows: “A beneficiary of stool land revenue aggrieved by the apportionment of the stool land revenue, may submit a com­plaint to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.”

IV. Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560); Section 48(2) provides that: “The following including (d) The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice’’, may apply to a family tribunal for a maintenance order:

V. Whistleblower Act, 2006 (Act 720); Sec­tion 3(1h) confers additional mandate on the Commission to investigate disclosures of im­propriety (economic crime, waste, mismanage­ment, misappropriation of public resources, environmental degradation) and complaints of victimization of whistleblowers.

Such additional responsibilities imposed on the Commission by emerging legislations indi­cates the overwhelming tasks of the Commis­sion through the performance of those tasks.

The Author is a staff of the Commis­sion on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and she tries to high­light the Commission’s work through her perspective on, “The contributions of CHRAJ to Social Development in Ghana in the past thirty years of its establish­ment”.

BY CHRISTIANA QUASHIGAH