Ghanaians Abroad Petition UN Over Police Brutalities

FLASHBACK: A police officer manhandling a protester as others look on

A group of Ghanaians living in the United States of America (USA) have petitioned the Human Rights Council of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) about the recent police brutalities visited on some Ghanaians who went on protest to demand a new voters' register ahead of the 2016 polls.

It follows police attacks on some members of Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) on Wednesday, September 16, 2015, which left many with various degrees of injury.

That was after police prevented the demonstrators from picketing the premises of the Electoral Commission (EC), where they had intended to present a petition, because they (police) claimed it was a security zone.

This was what compelled the Concerned Citizens of the Republic of Ghana (CCRG) to write to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to investigate the action of the police.

On Wednesday, September 30, 2015, they picketed in front of the UN headquarters in New York, where President John Mahama was attending the UN General Assembly, wielding placards.

Reason
In a petition signed by Kwame Agyemang-Budu, Ibrahim Sanni, Issah Ballah and Mujeeb Mogtari, they noted that 'the Ghanaian government has acted with total and reckless disregard for human rights by unilaterally ordering and directing a “pre-emptive strike” in a show of aggression against Ghanaians,' adding that the action would 'cause irreparable harm and destabilise our peaceful country.'

'This is in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognises that disregard and contempt for human rights result in barbarous acts which outrage the conscience of mankind,' they noted, insisting that 'the Mahama-led NDC government has deliberately used its control of state institutions to turn the country into a police totalitarian state.'

They argued that the Ghana Police Service under the control of President John Dramani Mahama 'has demonstrated total disregard for the Public Order Act 1994' which provides that when a police officer is notified of a special event and he has reasonable grounds to believe that holding that event may lead to violence or endanger public order inter alia, the police officer may request the organiser to postpone or relocate the event.

The law also provides that if the organiser refuses the request, the police officer may apply to a Justice for an order prohibiting the event.

Concerns
The group said 'not only have the police been granting civil society permission to legally express themselves, but under the cloak of the night, the same police force is running to inferior courts, contrary to the laws of the land and without notice to these organisations, to stop properly filed and approved demonstrations.'

'This has been the wanton practice of the Police Service under the current government; and when their claim for an injunction is defeated, they hurriedly run to another inferior court with different or sometimes concocted intelligence reports to secure another injunction against constitutionally-mandated peaceful demonstrations,' they added.

Under these alleged government-sanctioned violations, they said individuals are beaten by the Ghanaian police force under directives 'from above', resulting in some people losing limbs.

It was in view of this they said 'the inferior courts issuing these injunctions lack authority but the government and its police force are taking advantage of these breaches in our Constitution to violate our fundamental constitutional rights which the UN Charter stands for.'

Conviction
Leadership of the group therefore said 'we are without doubt convinced, based on evidence available to us and all civil societies including the LMVCA, that the electoral roll is bloated for the benefit of the incumbent government and it does not promote peace and growth.'

They therefore sent a message to the government and its agencies that 'no amount of intimidation, harassment, violence, lies, obstacles, and abuse of the legal process can protect this bloated register. The register is bogus and will not survive. We are absolutely certain about that.'

'The more the State uses its instruments of propaganda and violence to protect an electoral roll built for the purpose of rigging for the benefit of incumbency, the more they expose that fraudulent intention, and the more they worsen their case to protect that gargantuan instrument of fraud,' they indicated.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu