Ghana’s UPR record shows progress, but key human rights commitments remain outstanding

Ghana’s participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism has contributed to significant reforms in the country’s human rights and justice systems, but several commitments remain unfulfilled, the Executive Director of the POS Foundation, Jonathan Osei Owusu, has said.

Speaking in an interview with journalists, Mr Osei Owusu said Ghana’s experience with the UPR demonstrated that recommendations accepted by the country could lead to tangible reforms when they were translated into sustained national advocacy, policy action and institutional change.

He said the UPR should not be treated merely as an international reporting exercise, but as a mechanism capable of influencing national policy, legislation and institutional reform.

He cited Ghana’s community-sentencing reform as a clear example of how UPR recommendations could eventually translate into domestic legislation.

During Ghana’s third UPR cycle in 2017, the Netherlands recommended that the country consider alternatives to imprisonment for minor offences to help address prison overcrowding. Ghana accepted the recommendation.

In the fourth UPR cycle in 2023, Mali again recommended the implementation of community service as a measure to reduce prison overcrowding, which Ghana also supported.

The recommendations have since contributed to a major legislative development, with Parliament passing the Community Service Bill in July 2026 to provide community service as an alternative to custodial sentences for specified offences. The Bill is awaiting presidential assent.

Mr Osei Owusu, however, stressed that the legislation was not the result of the UPR process alone, highlighting the sustained contribution of Ghanaian civil society organisations, particularly the POS Foundation, to criminal justice reform.

He said the Foundation had for years advocated non-custodial sentencing and engaged government institutions, Parliament, the Judiciary, the Ghana Prisons Service, the Attorney-General’s Office and other stakeholders on the issue.

According to him, the UPR recommendation provided an international accountability framework, but it was sustained national advocacy, policy development and implementation that helped move the issue from recommendation to legislation.

He also cited the Justice for All Programme (JFAP) as another example of collaboration between the state and civil society in addressing prison overcrowding and prolonged pre-trial detention.

The programme, established through collaboration among the Judiciary, Attorney-General’s Office, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Police Service, CHRAJ and civil society organisations, has facilitated special in-prison court sittings to review cases involving remand prisoners and secure bail, discharge, withdrawal of cases and other forms of relief where appropriate.

Mr Osei Owusu said the experience showed that prison decongestion could not be attributed to government alone, but was the result of sustained cooperation between state institutions and civil society.

He said the Community Service Bill built on those efforts by establishing a broader legal framework for avoiding imprisonment in appropriate cases involving low-risk offenders.

The POS Foundation has meanwhile called for the swift development of the legislative instrument required to operationalise the Community Service Bill, stressing that parliamentary passage was only the beginning and that effective implementation would require clear procedures, institutional capacity and community involvement.

Mr Osei Owusu also acknowledged the contribution of development partners and donors, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to Ghana’s human rights and justice reform efforts.

He said donor support had enabled civil society organisations and state institutions to undertake research, advocacy, monitoring, capacity building and stakeholder engagement.

“The lesson is that the UPR works best when recommendations do not end in Geneva,” Osei Owusu said. “They have to be taken up nationally, monitored, advocated for and translated into policies, legislation and programmes”.

Property Rights of Spouses Bill remains outstanding

Despite the progress recorded, Mr Osei Owusu identified the Property Rights of Spouses Bill as one of the clearest examples of an outstanding UPR commitment.

Ghana supported a 2012 recommendation from Iraq calling for gender equality measures, including the adoption of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill. In 2017, the country again supported Australia’s recommendation for the passage of gender-equality legislation, including the same Bill.

However, the legislation remains outstanding.

Mr Osei Owusu noted that the issue was particularly important because the obligation was not merely a policy commitment. Article 22(2) of the 1992 Constitution requires Parliament to enact legislation regulating the property rights of spouses.

He said the repeated acceptance of the recommendation without its eventual enactment demonstrated the gap that could emerge between Ghana’s international commitments and domestic implementation.

Mixed record

The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), William Nyarko, described Ghana’s record across its four UPR cycles as mixed, citing significant progress alongside persistent implementation gaps and areas of regression.

He said some recommendations initially resisted by Ghana had eventually contributed to major reforms, while others accepted several years ago remained outstanding.

Mr Nyarko cited affirmative action as an example of a reform that moved from repeated UPR recommendations to legislation.

Ghana accepted recommendations during its second and third UPR cycles calling for an affirmative-action framework and the passage of an Affirmative Action Bill. Parliament eventually enacted the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, 2024, which has since received presidential assent.

Mr Nyarko said the enactment represented significant progress, although the real test was now whether the law would be effectively implemented and complied with by public institutions and whether it would result in measurable improvements in women’s representation.

He said the development demonstrated that recommendations under the UPR process could take several cycles before producing concrete domestic results.

Death penalty reform

Mr Nyarko described Ghana’s changing position on the death penalty as one of the clearest examples of the potential impact of the UPR.

During earlier UPR cycles beginning in 2008, Ghana did not support recommendations calling for abolition or a formal moratorium on the death penalty. In 2012, the country did not support 15 recommendations concerning abolition, a moratorium and ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The position changed in 2017, when Ghana supported recommendations calling for abolition. By the fourth cycle in 2023, Ghana had supported a larger number of recommendations concerning abolition and commutation.

Parliament subsequently passed legislation removing the death penalty for ordinary criminal offences and replacing it with life imprisonment.

Mr Nyarko said the reform represented a major human rights achievement, although full abolition remained incomplete because constitutional provisions covering offences such as high treason were still in place.

Code of Conduct Bill under scrutiny

Mr Nyarko also identified the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as an important fourth-cycle UPR commitment.

Under recommendation 149.41, Nigeria called on Ghana to:

“Continue in its efforts to swiftly enact the Code of Conduct for Public Officers bill.”

Ghana supported the recommendation.
Mr Nyarko said the commitment was significant because it constituted a specific legislative undertaking rather than a broad call to fight corruption.

“The test of recommendation 149.41 is ultimately whether Ghana enacts and implements the Code of Conduct for Public Officers Bill,” he said.

He said the Bill’s continued consideration in 2026 provided a concrete benchmark for assessing Ghana’s implementation of its fourth-cycle UPR commitments.

Until the legislation was enacted and effectively implemented, he said, Ghana could not reasonably claim to have fully discharged the commitment it accepted before the Human Rights Council.

Media freedom remains a concern

Mr Nyarko further identified media freedom and journalist safety as another important test of Ghana’s implementation of UPR recommendations.

He said Ghana accepted a recommendation during the 2017 cycle concerning the adoption of legislation guaranteeing media freedom, while recommendations during the fourth cycle became more specific, addressing attacks and intimidation of journalists, impunity, journalist safety, media freedom and access to information.

Although Ghana had established institutional mechanisms aimed at improving journalist safety, he said continuing reports of attacks and intimidation showed that the problem had not been fully resolved.

“The real measure is whether journalists can actually work without fear, whether attacks are investigated and whether perpetrators are held accountable,” Mr Nyarko said.

He said the challenge was therefore not necessarily the absence of institutions, but whether those institutions were adequately empowered and whether perpetrators of attacks were held accountable.

Concerns over LGBTQI+ rights

On the rights of sexual minorities, Mr Nyarko said Ghana’s UPR record was more complex, reflecting both areas of progress and significant concerns about recent developments.

He said Ghana had generally not supported recommendations calling for the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex relations, although it had accepted or supported some recommendations concerning protection against violence and the investigation of attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

He said recent legislative developments had raised concerns about possible regression.

Parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill in 2026, although the measure has not become law. Parliamentary records currently identify it as the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, which was laid in February 2026.

The Speaker subsequently directed Parliament to reconsider the Bill following concerns surrounding its passage and the need for broader engagement. The legislation therefore remains subject to parliamentary reconsideration and has not proceeded to presidential assent.

Mr Nyarko said the development created a sharp contrast between Ghana’s participation in the UPR process and the direction of recent domestic legislation.

“On LGBTQI+ issues, the record is not simply one of progress or stagnation. There has been progress in recognising the need to protect people from violence and abuse, but there is also a serious concern about retrogression in the direction of recent legislation,” he said.

He stressed that the Bill should not be described as an enacted law because it remained subject to reconsideration and had not received presidential assent.

Civil society’s role

Both Mr Osei Owusu and Mr Nyarko emphasised the role of Ghanaian civil society in translating UPR recommendations into national reforms.

The POS Foundation, in particular, has played a prominent role in facilitating civil society participation in the UPR process, monitoring implementation and advocating reforms in Ghana’s justice and human rights sectors.

Mr Osei Owusu said civil society’s involvement was crucial because the UPR was a continuous process rather than a one-day international review.

For both speakers, the central lesson from Ghana’s four UPR cycles is that the process has the greatest impact when recommendations move beyond international commitments in Geneva and are translated into national legislation, institutional reforms and measurable improvements in people’s rights.

Mr Osei Owusu said the passage of the Community Service Bill demonstrated that the process could produce results when government, Parliament, civil society and development partners maintained sustained engagement.

Mr Nyarko, meanwhile, said the outstanding commitments should form a central part of Ghana’s preparations for its next UPR cycle.

“The question should no longer be simply how many recommendations Ghana accepted,” he said. “The question is how many accepted recommendations have actually been implemented, and whether implementation has changed the lived experience of people in Ghana.”

As Ghana prepares for its next UPR cycle, its four previous reviews provide both a record of progress and an accountability framework for tracking accepted recommendations, completing outstanding reforms and scrutinising areas of regression.

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