GMO Court Case Hearing Set For March 11

Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) appears before the Accra Human Rights High Court on Monday, 11 March 2019, over the first GMO case in Ghana, in which the organisation is challenging the commercial release of Bt cowpea and GM rice, as well as the legal basis for the confined field trials approved by the National Biosafety Authority.

It will be recalled that the case was last adjourned on Tuesday, 12 February 2019, when FSG prayed the court for time to submit some additional material of relevance for the record.

The court, in turn, granted the request and ordered all documents to be filed with responses by all parties within seven days.

FSG is praying the court to focus on the illegalities committed by the NBA, which include the setting up of their Tribunal, for which we are seeking remedies. For example, at the time of going to court, the members of the Appeals Tribunal had not even been gazetted as required under Section 26 (2) which states clearly that, "The members of the Appeals Tribunal shall be appointed by the Minister and the appointments shall be published in the Gazette".

It is the contention of FSG that what the Section 26 of the Act, that the defendants rest upon to challenge the jurisdiction of the court really shows is yet another example of the several breaches of the Biosafety Act, for which we are already before the court. FSG is praying the court to dismiss their petition, as these breaches clearly justify the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Court over the case.

The hearing begins at 10 am.

---Food Sovereignty Ghana