Senior Management Officials and Employers at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) are undergoing a two-day training in human rights in business to help reduce abuses at the workplace.

The short course is part of activities under the “Promoting Human Rights Awareness in Business” project being implemented by Legal Resource Centre (LRC) in collaboration with GIMPA and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Netherland, with support from the Netherlands Embassy.

Mr Robert Tettey Nomo Junior, a Project Officer at LRC, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the short course aimed at giving the heads of institutions the opportunity to appreciate the need for human right in businesses.

He said the programme would be expanded later in the year to give an opportunity to the public, especially employees, to enhance their knowledge on human rights in workplaces and demand for them.

The course, Mr Numo said was also targeted at helping institutions to adjust their internal work regulations towards mitigating the workplace abuses in the forms of discrimination and torture of employees.

He said it was important that institutions and businesses review their internal regulations to remove all possible abuses of discrimination and unfair treatment.

He said it would be prudent for institutions to adopt best practices with regard to empower rights and that formed another basis for running the short course.

The course contains eight modules on what human rights is, examination of the most common human right breaches in Ghana and also targeted at assisting the participants to understand the responsibilities a corporation had towards its employees and the community at large.

In an interview with Mr Victor Brobbey, the Head of Private Law at the Faculty of law at GIMPA, said the course was significant for the country as it moved towards business growth and investment.

He said it was clear that there were abuses in various workplaces and that every country experienced its level of abuses, adding that no country could boast of a 100 per cent free from abuses.

Mr Brobbey said although no country could boast 100 per cent free from abuses, some countries were doing better than others and therefore the need for Ghana to strive to do more to secure worker’s right.

He said there was the need for a national guideline that would govern human right in the country as countries like Kenya and Nigeria had adopted a form of national action plan on business and human rights.