Takoradi, Aug 13, –The Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has so far dealt with 8,775 petitions out of 12,409 cases received as at the end of December 1996. Forty percent of the cases were resolved through mediation. Mr Emile Short, Commissioner of CHRAJ said this at a seminar organised by CHRAJ as part of activities marking this year’s human rights week at Takoradi. He said most of the cases involved complaints by individuals who felt they suffered injustice as a result of abuse of power, unfairness and high handedness. Other cases involved wrongful dismissals. termination of appointments, victimisation such as punitive transfers, delay in promotion, refusal to pay end of service benefits and wrongful cancellation of examination results. The rest are cancellation of mining licences and refusal to grant a licence to operate forex bureau. Mr Short said a significant number of the cases were labour related, adding that statistics indicates that out of 5,200 petitions in 1996, about 2209 were labour related. Allegations of wrongful dismissals topped the list accounting for 517 cases. Salary arrears, salary withholding and discrimination followed with 440 while termination of appointments was third with a total of 339 cases. Mr Short said cases like resignation, redundancy, redeployment, pension, gratuity and end of service benefits, suspension, interdiction, promotion and other labour discriminations totalled 913. On human rights, the commissioner said CHRAJ had intervened on a number of occasions to secure bail for suspects who have been detained beyond the statutory period or have them arraigned before court. He said the commission ‘s assistance had also been sought by litigants whose cases have been delayed in courts adding that its intervention resulted in the speedy disposal of some of the cases. Mr Short said of late CHRAJ’s intervention had been sought in cases where children had been denied medical treatment because of the religious beliefs of their parents. Other cases which the commission handled include confiscation of property by Government without compensation, gender discrimination and issues concerning women and children rights. Mr. Short said the commission carried out a nation-wide inspection of police cells and prisons last year to ensure that the conditions there meet minimum international standards. He said its findings included over-crowding and congestions in many prisons, poor sanitation in most police cells, inadequate feeding allowance and conviction of pregnant women who invariably give birth in prison. Others are conviction of juveniles in adult prisons, indefinite holding of about 300 condemned prisoners under mentally tortuous conditions and the continued detention of remand prisoners for periods ranging from a year to eight years without trial. Mr Short said as a result of the commission’s recommendation and the publicity given to the report, all juveniles in adult prisons have been transferred to borstal institutions whilst the feeding allowance for inmates have been increased by 300 percent. The Government has also undertaken a review of the sentence of some selected inmates and released those in very bad health and the very old. He said CHRAJ has also examined social and customary practices which it considers dehumanising and are in violation to the human rights provisions of the constitution.
