NETRIGHT calls for speedy passage of land Bill

The Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a not-for-profit advocacy group focused on women’s rights and economic justice has called for accelerated passage of the land Bill with its gender equality and social inclusion provisions without further delay.

Mrs Cynthia Sunu, Programme Officer of NETRIGHT, in a briefing to share the status of the Bill with the media in Ho, passionately appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to use his high office to ensure that the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, the Committee on Lands and Forestry and Parliament expedite the passage of the Bill into law.

The briefing seeks to launch the Group’s signature campaign to draw public support and attention with the media providing the platform to inform and educate.

The Bill is intended to consolidate and harmonise all existing laws on land to regulate usage and enhance effective land management to protect women and other vulnerable people’s interest on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI).

The GESI as contained in the provision is expected to ensure the integration of national and international best practices on gender and land rights, land administration and management, premised on prevailing laws and court decisions affecting the distribution, rules and procedures on land acquisition.

Mrs Sunu noted that in spite of Article 22 of the Constitution, which guaranteed equity in the sharing of landed properties, women continue to suffer rights to access, control and ownership.

She said any legislation that sought to address those inequalities to give direction, needed to be supported by all.

The Programme Officer said the Land Bill was withdrawn from Parliament in March, this year, to be re-laid after it spent about 12 months in the House, following a review by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry in partnership with relevant actors.

She observed that though the GESI-responsive provisions were intact after the Select Committee’s work, there was the need to mobilise support against its removal when re-laid.

Madam Patricia Blankson Akakpo, Programme Manager of NETRIGHT said it would be outrageous for the Land Bill to go along the path of the Right to Information Law and the Domestic Violence Law, which took 19 and seven years, respectively, to gain legitimacy.

She observed that the land bill was excluded from the business of Parliament for this session anticipating that the “August House would focus its business on the session agenda with the 2020 budget being the main schedule to end the year.”

She craved the indulgence of the media to throw more light on the matter just like the crusade for the fight against “Galamsey.”

Togbe Adza Osei VII, Paramount Chief of Akoviefe Traditional Area, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, appealed to Professor Aaron Michael Ocquaye, Speaker of Parliament and the Select Committee on Lands and Natural Resources to priorities the Bill saying “Gender must not under-right lands acquisition and ownership.”

He entreated the media to raise the political consciousness of the public to support the passage of the GESI-responsive Land Bill.

Mama Afiakuma II, Queen of Tsowu Clan of Ve-Deme, who presided, said government’s policy on “Planting for Food and Jobs” risked being derailed if inequalities still persisted in the country’s land tenure system and administration.

NETRIGHT quoting the Land Commission said 80 per cent of land in the country was communally owned, about 18 per cent vested resource with two percent being state owned with over 100 laws governing land in Ghana in addition to unwritten customary laws regulating stool, skin and family land.

The Land Bill is the outcome of reforms introduced in the land sector resulting from the implementation of the 1999 National Land Policy (NLP), which identified about 166 pieces of legislation that formed the legal framework for land administration in the country.