Ghana - Amnesty International

GHANA: END IMPUNITY THROUGH UNIVERSAL JURISDICTIONNo Safe Haven Series No. 1061of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, as a crime against humanity.Enforced prostitution and sexual slavery. Under Ghanaian law, “induced prostitution” and some actsamounting to sexual slavery fall under the umbrella of “human trafficking”, which is a crime. 172However, the concept of “induced prostitution” does not fully reflect the elements of this crime, akey component of which is the coercion of the perpetrator, for the pecuniary or other benefit of theperpetrator or another person, not behaviour imitated by the victim or for the benefit of the victim.Similarly, the concept of “human trafficking” does not fully capture the complete range of sexualenslavement, which does not always include trafficking. Furthermore, Ghanaian law does notindicate that these offences, when committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack againstcivilians, constitute crimes against humanity.Other forms of sexual violence. The Criminal Code identifies “indecent assault” as encompassingother forms of sexual violence not amounting to rape and defilement, although the Code limitsindecent assault to those assaults committed forcibly, 173 thus failing to include potentialcircumstances where threats of force and coercion enable the crime (see discussion of Rape above).Ghanaian law on “indecent assault” is also narrower than the category of “other forms of sexualviolence” found in Article 7 of the Rome Statute. “Other forms of sexual violence,” as defined in theElements of Crimes, include the causing of any act of a sexual nature“by force, or by threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress,detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power, against such person or persons oranother person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment or such person’s or persons’incapacity to give genuine consen.t”These examples would cover sexual acts that a perpetrator forced a victim to commit on a third partyor as means of humiliation. In contrast, indecent assault under Ghanaian law appears to criminalizeonly a perpetrator’s sexual contact with or sexual violation of a victim’s body, which would notinclude other sexual acts the perpetrator forced or coerced the victim to carry out. Ghanaian law alsodeparts from international law by failing expressly to indicate that these offences, when committedas part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, are crimes against humanity.4.3.3. GENOCIDEGhana has been a party to the 1948 Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime ofGenocide (Genocide Convention) since 24 December 1958. 174 Article II of the Genocide Conventiondefines genocide as follows:“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed withintent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, assuch:(a) Killing members of the group;172See Human Trafficking Act, sect. 1.173See Criminal Code, sect. 103.174U.N. G.A. Res. 260 (III), 9 December 1948(http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/260(III)).Index: AFR 28/004/2012 Amnesty International November 2012