Pressurise Gov't To Address Human Rights Abuses - Bossman

By William Yaw Owusu


Monday September 10, 2007
THE Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has accused the citizenry of failing to put pressure on government to address human rights issues adequately.

“Are we making sure that government and its institutions pay particular attention to issues on human rights?” CHRAJ Commissioner, Ms Anna Bossman asked rhetorically.

“It is not only the President and the government who should fight t his cause. We all have a constitutional duty to ensure that the problem is adequately addressed”, she said in Accra on Friday when speaking at the end of t he second annual human right s advocates training programme for West and Central Africa.

The two-week programme, which was under the theme “Human Rights and Development – the Millennium Development Goals”, was attended by 30 advocates from West and Central Africa.

It was organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in collaboration wit h the Centre for the study of Human Rights at the Columbia University, New York.

Ms Bossman said: “The human rights situation in the county is not the best but you cannot also say t here has not been improvement over the years.”

She said there was a lot of work to be done in areas such as gender empowerment and addressing of problems affecting the vulnerable in society.

She then called for a change of the mindset of the people appreciates that human rights abuses affected accelerated growth and development.

Ms Boss man said CHRAJ now has a broader mandate to include anti-corruption adding, “with the little resources, we are trying to do the best we can.”

She, however, commended the media for “doing much better” in the fight against human rights abuses and corruption.

Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of MFWA, noted that with the limited resources at it s disposal CHRAJ has lived up to its name. “It is one independent body which has put people’s rights above everything,” he commended.

He called for media support in crusade against human rights abuses saying “we still cannot be complacent of the work we have done so far.”