Mrs. Angelina M. Domakyaareh, Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, on Wednesday appealed to the government to institute legal structures that would keep convicted pregnant women out of the prisons.

Speaking in an interview with the GNA, she said the imprisonment of pregnant women violates their fundamental human right and that of their unborn babies, who committed no crime.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that it is the fundamental right of pregnant women convicted of crime to be given suspended sentence to allow them obtain the needed attention from their families," she said.

Mrs. Domakyaareh said though Ghana was one of the first countries to ratify the UN Human Rights Convention, the necessary domestic laws have not been enacted to ensure its application. "It is not enough to ratify the convention and leave it hanging without the necessary legal backing to facilitate its implementation," she said. "This situation makes it difficult for the Commission to apply the provisions of the convention."

Mrs. Domakyaareh said in spite of the ratification of the convention imprisonment of pregnant women is still very rampant in the country.

She said routine checks by CHRAJ in the various prisons and police cells reveal that several pregnant women and nursing mothers are languishing behind bars, some serving their sentences and others on remand for years.

"The problem is worse at the James Fort Prison," she said.

Mrs. Domakyaareh said over the past two years, CHRAJ in collaboration with the Continuing Judicial Education Unit of the Judiciary initiated steps to have a domestic legal backing to the Universal Human Rights Declaration, but that has not yet yielded result.

She said efforts are still underway to make that a reality and expressed the hope that the NPP government would facilitate the passage of domestic laws to enhance the application of the provisions of the UN human rights convention.

Dr. Ken Attafua, Chief Investigator of CHRAJ also said prisoners have rights, which need to be protected.

He said apart from the freedom of mobility and limited privacy, prisoners have the right to enjoy all other necessities and privileges everyone enjoys.

"They have the right to natural light, good food, shelter and clothes, education, human dignity and protection among other things," he said. "To some extent, prisoners should have their privacy."

Dr. Attafua said prisoners have the right to make complains to public officers about their conditions without interference from prison and police officers.

"Unfortunately this is not the case in this country, as prisoners live in very poor, unhealthy conditions and are denied their comfort and privacy," he said. "Right in front of CHRAJ officers at the Nsawam Prisons recently, a prison officer demanded to censor a written complaint from a prisoner to the CHRAJ."

He said the CHRAJ is making efforts to ensure that the rights of prisoners are upheld.