CHRI Newsletter

Police Council Returns to Ghana

Edmund Amarkwei Foley & Daniel Woods
Project Coordinator, Police Accountability Project & Consultant, Access to Justice Programme, CHRI

Ghana took a step towards more democratic, acco- untable policing in March with the appointment of a Police Council. Ghana’s Police Council is a constitutional body that advises the President on policy related to internal security, including the role of the police, police budgets, finance and administration and the promotion of senior officers. The police have been working without this body in place since the previous Council lapsed with the last Presidency in December 2004.

CHRI’s Africa office, based in Accra, has been lobbying for the appointment of a Police Council since it began working on police accountability in West Africa in 2005. Ghana’s President is required to appoint the Police Council when he or she takes office. When President Kufuor was elected to a second term, he failed to appoint the Council. Not only was this in direct contravention of his constitutional obligations, it also meant that in the absence of a major advisory and oversight body, the police could not operate effectively accountably or efficiently. CHRI’s efforts to get the Police Council reappointed ranged from calling on members of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Interior to raise the issue in Parliament, meeting with the Minister of the Interior, making statements to the President during the President’s People’s Assembly in February, writing to the President and talking about the Council on local radio.

CHRI’s work paid off with the announcement on 10 March 2006 that the President had inaugurated a new Police Council, with Justice Scott Glenn Baddoo, a Supreme Court Judge, as the Chairperson. While CHRI has welcomed this crucial step towards a democratic, accountable police force, there is still a long way to go. For the Police Council, an important initial priority is a national police policy for Ghana. For the President, the appointment of the Council must be followed up with the appointment of Regional Police Committees, constitutional bodies that assist the Council with its work.

Commonwealth People’s Forum in Kampala, 2007

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to the article titled ‘Do Commonwealth People Matter? A Personal Perspective’ by Daisy Cooper published in the last issue of this newsletter, which highlighted some of the logistical and organisational issues that arose during the 2005 Commonwealth Peoples’ Forum (CPF) in Malta. The Commonwealth People’s Forum is one of the most important activities in the Commonwealth calendar. As the institution charged with its facilitation, the Commonwealth Foundation is committed to continuously improving the planning and execution of the Forum. The Foundation has listened carefully to a range of CPF stakeholders (including its Civil Society Advisory Committee and Commonwealth Associations, such as the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative) in drawing up its plans for the next CPF in Kampala. Some factors affecting the CPF are outside the Foundation’s control, yet Malta 2005 saw a number of notable achievements: the increased involvement of civil society in running the CPF; a head of state formally addressed civil society at a special session; and the roundtable between civil society and Foreign Ministers. The Foundation recognises that these gains need to be enhanced and based on feedback, it has identified areas where there is room for improvement, for example: deeper engagement in the workshops; sharper focus on the main CHOGM theme; and clearer criteria for participation in drafting and special sessions.

Based on this analysis, the Foundation will be organising a CPF in Kampala that:

Brings Commonwealth civil society together under one banner;
Provides an opportunity for substantive discussion at high profile concurrent thematic workshops; and
Adds a people’s perspective to CHOGM deliberations.

Planning for Kampala starts now and the Foundation recognises that it can only realise its vision for CPF 2007 by working in conjunction with its civil society counterparts. Partnerships that draw on the strengths and capacities of the Foundation and civil society will be essential. We look forward to working with you as we prepare for Uganda.

Vijay Krishnarayan, Deputy Director, Commonwealth Foundation