School of Law
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Item Human rights and poverty reduction in Ghana: A rights based approach(University of Ghana, 2009-12-24) Adagewine, G.The study examined how legal rules can be used to enforce human rights and constitutional principles in order to facilitate poverty reduction in Ghana. It also examined how human rights and poverty relate and the relevance of that relation to poverty reduction. In addition, the study examined the concepts of human rights and poverty as well as the rights based approach to poverty reduction. It is argued in the study that the objects of human rights are required to reduce poverty. The methodology used in the study was library based. It took the form of a review of relevant literature on poverty, human rights and the rights based approach to poverty reduction. It also took the form of a discussion of relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and other legislation. The methodology also took the form of a discussion of selected cases decided by the Supreme Court of Ghana. The conclusion from the study is that is a link between poverty and human rights. It has also been established that the legal enforcement of human rights and rights based principles can facilitate poverty reduction. The challenge, however, for the poor is the economic constraints they face that make it difficult for them to utilize avenues that exist for the vindication of their rights. It is therefore suggested that institutions like the Legal Aid Board and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice should be sufficiently resourced as well as their mandate also ought to be amplified so as to enable them assist the poor and vulnerable in society assert their legal rights under the law.Item Discrimination against People with Disability is a Violation of the Inherent Dignity and worth of the Human Person: A Call to Intensify Investment in Quality Mental Health Care.(University of Ghana, 2019-07) Sanaki, S.The general well-being of the human person is the totality of the effective operation of the human brain especially, and the physical health of the person. Without the brain functioning properly, the entire body may be deemed collapsed as nothing meaningful may proceed from such individuals. Dr Brock Chisholm, the first Director -General of the World Health Organization (WHO), who was a psychiatrist and Shepherded the notion that mental and physical health were intimately linked. He also stated that “without mental health there can be no true physical health”.1 It is for this purpose that all individuals, departments, agencies and government must pay intense attention to and seek to fulfill their duties to ensuring that the right to quality health care of which mental health care is not exempted is realized. As indivisible as the right to quality mental health care is, mental health has historically been neglected in Africa’s health and development policy agenda. Faced with equally challenging matters, including maternal and child morbidity, malaria, intractable poverty, leaders in Ghana and international development agencies frequently overlook the importance of mental health. It is as a result of this conscious shift of attention from mental health to other matters that we have mental patients of various degrees of mental health challenges on the streets of Accra, Ghana. This paper seeks to unfolds: 1. the injustice done people with mental health diseases; 2. the insubstantial investment and contributions from the government of Ghana over the years in the mental health sector; 3. the inability of international bodies and communities’ and the government of Ghana’s inability to adequately factor, promote and guarantee the rights of persons with mental health diseases in the various acts and conventions; and 4. the evasive nature of advocacy in matters regarding mental health in Ghana. To effectively achieve the purpose of this paper, relevant institutions like the Mental Health Authority, reports and statistics from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Pantang Hospital, the World Health Organization on Mental Health and Mental Health Care will be examined. Some published cases, summaries of various interviews from international and national institutions and individuals will be considered. Legislations like the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846), International and Regional Instruments will be reviewed for this purpose. This paper concludes with the unfolding of the weaknesses in the mental health sector and how the rights of persons with disabilities (mental health challenge) are considered among the least in our society and treated with little or no dignity. The statistics will prove that international instruments and norms regulating mental disabilities rights are somewhat ineffective in our part of the world.Item The Rights Of Internally Displaced Persons In Africa: The Case Of Cote D’ivoire(University of Ghana, 2013-11) Conde, M.O.This study aims at highlighting the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), the grave violations of human rights they are victims of and the multiple difficulties they find themselves in for being forcibly displaced, on the one hand, and the absence of internationally recognized legal instruments on the rights of IDPs and institution with the specific mandate of protection and assistance to internally-displaced persons (IDPs), on the other hand. This work focuses on Cote d’Ivoire as a case-study. It aims at finding the extent to which the absence of specific legal instruments and institutions for the protection and promotion of the rights of IDPs has affected the case of IDPs in that country. To do so, the work reviews the international bill of rights comprising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and their implementation mechanisms. In addition, the work examines, inter alia, the provisions of international humanitarian law (in particular, the four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols) and the African human rights protection system to determine the alternate ways that can be found to ensure IDPs the full enjoyment of all their human rights. Finally, the work examines the new African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons and its effectiveness or otherwise in filling the gaps and weaknesses identified in the international system. The findings conclude that though there is no internationally recognized Convention on the rights of IDPs, IDPs’ rights can be deduced from existing provisions and can be enforced through existing mechanisms. With respect to the African Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons, the work concludes that it serves as an important instrument to anchor the rights of IDPs in treaty law and that it is an effective protective mechanism for IDPs in African and can serve as a guide for other regional systems or the UN. However, it also possesses its own weaknesses which the work seek to expose and address. The study ends by recommending to the international community, including United Nations, its agencies and partners, governments and civil society organizations to take certain practical steps towards the elaboration of a Convention on the protection and promotion of the rights of IDPs and designate or create a UN agency with the mandate of protection of IDPs.Collection Collection