Commemorating International Human Rights Day 2017

December 10 every year is observed globally as Human Rights Day (HRD), to mark the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The Commonwealth Human Right Initiative (CHRI) Africa Office and the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) Africa, join the international community to commemorate this year’s Human Rights Day. Today marks the beginning of a year- long commemoration of the 70^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which falls in 2018.

The UDHR, with its “perennial values of equality, justice and human dignity”, lays a solid foundation of a just world for all UN member states and their citizens. The Universal Declaration is a commitment, by all States, that they will protect and promote human rights. Without the respect for human rights, other equally important UN values such as development, peace and security cannot be attained.

As we commemorate a day that focuses on the promotion of rights and freedoms aimed at upholding dignity and justice for all-principles also enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter—a document that sets out the values of the Commonwealth - CHRI and the RCS would like to remind Ghanaians that the Universal Declaration was written for all of us-the people of member states. It is therefore imperative that as a people we rise up, hold our leaders to account on international obligations, let our voices be heard and stand against anything that will threaten the protection and enjoyment of Human Rights.

In recent times one such threat, which the UN, has described as “an enormous obstacle to the realization of all human rights” is corruption, something that seem to have become a canker in the Ghanaian society. Human rights are indivisible and interdependent, and the consequences of corrupt governance are multiple and touch on all human rights — civil, political, economic, social and cultural, as well as the right to development. Corruption leads to violation of the government’s human rights obligation “to take steps… to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”.

It is for this reason that on the occasion of International Human Rights Day 2017 we would like to remind the Government of Ghana that Transparency and Accountability, two key principles of a human rights-based approach to development also happen to be integral to successful anti-corruption strategies. Importantly, we urge Government to take cognizance of the fact that some of the measures that can enhance transparency and accountability and contribute to sustainable anti-corruption measures are the adoption of laws ensuring the public’s access to information on governmental processes, decisions and policies -in our the Passage of the RTI Bill into law- as well as institutional reforms which strengthen transparency and accountability.

We wish all Ghanaians and by extension every member of the Commonwealth a happy Human Rights Day!

Issued by:
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) Africa Office, and

The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) Africa