The Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr. Emile Short has ruled out any idea of CHRAJ advocating for gay rights.
He said since homosexuality was frowned upon in Ghana it would not be prudent to bring it up as a human rights issue
He was speaking in an interview in Accra yesterday at a seminar on CHRAJ and the Institutionalization of a Human Rights Regime in Ghana, organized by the CHRAJ in collaboration with the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).
Mr. Short said in countries where there was anti discrimination section in the law, gay right could be described as a human right.
However the minimum the commission could go regarding gay rights was that CHRAJ might entertain complaint by a gay that had been refused a job on the basis of being a gay.
He spoke against the continued practice of the Trokosi system even though a law has been passed banning it. He added that, "Trokosi practice has an implication on the campaign for human rights activities".
He said the Paris principle of human rights, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1993 to set an international standards regarding national human rights institutions pointed out that a key factor to secure independence was the provision of adequate funding.
However in practice, he lamented, even where CHRAJ was empowered to prepare its own budget, it had to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance, which had the authority to determine the level of funding the commission would receive.
He said invariably the Ministry would reduce drastically funds voted and approved by parliament to be disbursed to the commission.
Touching on appointments and dismissals under the Paris law, he said it was preferable that commissioners were appointed for a fixed term of at least five years and a possibility of reappointment for one additional term of the same length.
He noted that the Ghanaian model of an indefinite appointment was not advisable because while it ensured security of tenure it had the disadvantage of making it difficult to remove incompetent appointees.
Assessing the achievements of CHRAJ in terms of the Paris principles, the Executive Director of CDD, Prof. Gyimah-Boadi, stressed that CHRAJ had not done much to help the cause of breaking the barriers to disabled persons' access to livelihood and dignity.
He said CHRAJ had not done much to push the government and parliament to take serious the Disability Bill currently languishing in cabinet.
He observed that CHRAJ's cooperation with other bodies, notably the judiciary appeared to be weak; this was clearly reflected in the failure of courts to minimize custodial sentencing, in spite of horrible overcrowding in Ghanaian prisons.