The Commission for Human Rights and Administrative
Justice (CHRAJ), at the weekend said that Nana Oye Lithur, a Human Rights Advocate, was right on the assertion that homosexuals had rights.
Ms Anna Bossman, CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Legal and Investigations, said �The constitutional provision on human rights is clear� we cannot put moral judgment on it� every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms.
Mr Bossman, who was speaking at a discussion with News Editors and Senior Media Practitioners in Accra, said �But these rights are subject to
respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest�.
She said that in the spirit of Ghana�s 1992 Constitution, the African Union (AU) and United Nations Charter on Human Rights, Nana Oye Lithur was right and should not suffer for defending human rights.
Ms Bossman noted: �It was unfortunate that the AU Commission failed to appoint her to the African Commission on Human and People�s Rights (ACHPR) charged with the task of promoting human rights and justice across the Continent, based on her purported statement on homosexuals� rights.
Ghana News Agency (GNA) report indicated that AU Commission officials told Ghanaian Journalists that Ghana�s representative (Nana Oye Lithur) was highly tipped to be picked, but her recent position on homosexuality might
have caused the panel not to give her the nod.
According to the GNA report, the AU Officials said: �homosexuality is abhorred by, and alien to African cultures and the Leaders of the African countries would not want to have people who seem to favour gay practice to lead institutions such as the ACHPR.
�African Leaders such as those of Uganda; Zimbabwe; Tanzania; Malawi; South Africa are hardliners against same sex,� they said, adding that �such countries who have significant influence in the AU, �are critical of people
who don�t share their views.�
Ms Bossman said �If the report is true then it�s unfortunate and civil society organisations, media and opinion leaders must speak against the action�.
Speaking on the mandate of CHRAJ, Ms Bossman said it included the duty to investigate complaints of violations of fundamental rights and freedoms, injustice, corruption, abuse of power and unfair treatment of any person by
a public officer in the exercise of his or her official duties.
�Our mandates are also to investigate complaints concerning the functioning of the Public Services Commission, the administrative organs of the State, the Armed Forces, the Police Service and the Prison Service in so far as complaints relate to the failure to achieve a balanced structuring of those services or fair administration in relation to those services,� she said.
Ms Bossman said that other duties of the Commission are to investigate complaints concerning practices and actions by persons, private enterprises and other institutions where those complaints alleged violations of
fundamental rights and freedoms.
She called on the media to partner the Commission to fight and promote human rights adding, �we expect the media to do in-depth stories on human rights violation, check the story behind the story. In recent times the
media seems to scratch the surface of the stories good headline but with no meat; such stories could cause a backlash�half-baked stories could cause more panic than if it was not reported at all�.
Mr Ato Amoaning Annan, Associate Dean, Diploma Programme and Students Affairs of AUCC, spoke on the topic �Effective Reporting of Human Rights by Media Houses�.
The media personnel tasked CHRAJ to be pro-active, engage the media on consistent basis, and re-activate its website regularly to serve as
information base for the media.