Ghana - Amnesty International

GHANA: END IMPUNITY THROUGH UNIVERSAL JURISDICTIONNo Safe Haven Series No. 1093of an offence that would be punishable under the laws of Ghana had the offence been committedwithin the jurisdiction of the Magistrate. In this case, the original warrant must be produced andendorsed within a reasonable amount of time determined by the Magistrate or the person sought willbe discharged. 293 In circumstances necessitating the reciprocal backing of arrest warrants, a DistrictMagistrate may refuse or place limits on this exercise because the case is trivial in nature, becausethe application for return was made in bad faith or not otherwise in the interests of justice, or ifendorsing the application would be unjust, oppressive, or impose too severe a punishment on theperson sought. 294The Extradition Act appears to cover all forms of granting extradition requests by foreign countries,but it is possible that other forms of transfer from Ghana, such as deportation to another country, arecovered when the deportation or transfer is a disguised extradition, although there does not seem tobe any authoritative judicial decision or executive interpretation on this point. 2957.1.1. OBSTACLES TO ACTIVE AND PASSIVE EXTRADITIONThere are a number of obstacles to active and passive extradition to and from Ghana, including:political control over the making or granting of requests, a double criminality requirement and aprohibition of extradition for offences deemed political in character.7.1.1.1. Political control over the making or granting of extradition requestsAlthough not explicitly stated in the Extradition Act, in practice requests for extradition by Ghana toa foreign country (active extradition) are made by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, apolitical official, in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.In general, decisions with respect to granting requests by foreign countries to Ghana (passiveextradition) are made by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, a political official. 296 When293See Extradition Act, sect. 19.294Extradition Act, sect. 21.295The difference between deportation and extradition has been explained by the Constitutional Court of SouthAfrica as follows:“In principle there is a clear distinction between extradition and deportation. Extradition involves basicallythree elements: acts of sovereignty on the part of two states; a request by one state to another state for thedelivery to it of an alleged criminal; and the delivery of the person requested for the purposes of trial orsentence in the territory of the requesting state. Deportation is essentially a unilateral act of the deportingstate in order to get rid of an undesired alien. The purpose of deportation is achieved when such alienleaves the deporting state’s territory; the destination of the deportee is irrelevant to the purpose ofdeportation. One of the important distinguishing features between extradition and deportation is thereforethe purpose of the state delivery act in question.”Mohamed v. President of the Republic of South Africa, Judgment, Case No. CCT 17/01, Const. Ct. So. Afr., 28May 2001, para. 29 (citations omitted). See also Clive Nicholls, Clare Montgomery and Julian B. Knowles, TheLaw of Extradition and Mutual Assistance – International Criminal Law: Practice and Procedure, London:Cameron, 2002, Sect. 12.7 (noting that there was a conflict of authority on whether English courts could inquireinto the circumstances of a transfer to the United Kingdom and whether it involved an abuse of process).296See Extradition Act, sect. 30. Although the Extradition Act does not designate which Minister has thisIndex: AFR 28/004/2012 Amnesty International November 2012