Ghana - Amnesty International

GHANA: END IMPUNITY THROUGH UNIVERSAL JURISDICTIONNo Safe Haven Series No. 105concerns. 6 It has also been reported that cases of sexual and gender-based violence are oftenprotracted and difficult to prosecute. 7 While on the death penalty has not been carried out since1993, and Ghana is classified as abolitionist in practice, the death penalty remains statutory lawand death sentences are still issued. 82.2. STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL LAWThere is no provision in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana that spells out a hierarchy between nationallaw and international conventional and customary law, but Article 75 of the 1992 Ghana providesthat treaties must be ratified by Parliament. 9Ghana is a dualist country in relation to international law, so traditionally international treaties canbe enforced domestically only after they have been directly incorporated into national legislation. 10However, it is possible that international law principles not directly incorporated into nationallegislation can be persuasive in Ghana. Article 33 of the Constitution, which provides for judicialprotection of human rights, states that “[t]he rights, duties, declarations and guarantees relating tothe fundamental human rights and freedoms specifically mentioned in this Chapter shall not beregarded as excluding others not specifically mentioned which are considered to be inherent in ademocracy and intended to secure the freedom and dignity of man”. 11 In addition, the Government62008 UPR National Report, at para. 64; 2008 UPR Summary, at para. 11. See also Amnesty International,‘Prisoners are Bottom of the Pile’: The Human Rights of Inmates in Ghana, Index: AFR 28/002/2012, April2012 (http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR28/002/2012/en); Amnesty International, Ghana: What’sHappening in the Prisons?, Index: AFR 28/002/2008, May 2008(http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR28/002/2008/en/66f0e6ea-1835-11dd-92b4-6b0c2ef9d02f/afr280022008eng.pdf).72008 UPR Summary, para. 21.82008 UPR Summary, para. 9. See Amnesty International, Abolitionist and retentionist countries(http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries). In 2012, the governmentadopted a recommendation by the Constitutional Review Commission formally to abolish the death penalty (seeSection 2.6 below).91992 Constitution, Ch. VIII, art. 75 (2).10See New Patriotic Party v. Attorney General (CIBA Case), 1 GLR 378, 412 (1997-98), which holds that“[i]nternational laws, including intra African enactments, are not binding on Ghana until such laws have beenadopted or ratified by municipal laws”). See also Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, ‘Ghana at 50: The Place ofInternational Human Rights Norms in the Courts’, Ghana Law Since Independence: History, Development andProspects, H. Mensa-Bonsu, C. Dowuona-Hammond, K. Appiagyei-Atua, N. Josiah-Aryeh & A. Hammond (eds.),Accra: Black Mask, 2007, pp. 179, 182 - 186. According to the dualist approach, international and national laware two completely separate legal systems. International law would apply within a state only to the extent that ithas been adopted by that state’s own national law, not as international law. According to the monist approach,international and national law are part of a single legal system and international law can be directly applied bynational courts. See generally, Robert Jennings and Arthur Watts, Oppenheim’s International Law, London andNew York: Longman, 1992, pp. 53 - 54.111992 Constitution, Ch. VI, art. 33 (5).Index: AFR 28/004/2012 Amnesty International November 2012