Ghana cited for human rights abuses in US State Department's 2022 report

In its annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2022, the United States Department of State has cited Ghana for multiple violations of human rights.

Released in April 2023, the report revealed that police impunity was due to factors such as corruption, brutality, inadequate training, lack of oversight, and an overburdened judicial system.

The police force was also found to have been unresponsive to reports of crimes and had demanded payment from the public for operational expenses before taking action.

Moreover, the report recounted the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vormawor, an activist who criticized the government, by the police on February 11. Initially charged with misdemeanours for making false statements on Facebook, Barker-Vormawor's charges were later upgraded to felony treason. He spent 35 days in jail before being granted bail by a judge.

The report further noted that Ghana placed severe limitations on free expression and media, including violence and threats of violence against journalists, unwarranted arrests or prosecutions of journalists, significant interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly, and government corruption.

The report also revealed the lack of accountability for gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence, and crimes targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex individuals or persons with disabilities. Additionally, laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults were identified, although not fully enforced.

While the Ghanaian government has implemented measures to address corruption and human rights abuses by officials in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, impunity remains a pervasive issue.

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