The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) is an independent governmental organization charged with safeguarding of
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
and investigating human rights abuses in
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
. It was established in 1993 by Act 456 of the
Parliament of Ghana
The Parliament of Ghana is the legislative body of the Government of Ghana.
History
Legislative representation in Ghana dates back to 1850, when the country was a British colony known as Gold Coast. The body, called the Legislative Council, ...
as directed by Article 216 of the
1992 Ghana constitution.
Creation and composition
The 1992 Ghana Constitution directs the legislature to establish a commission with mandate to be The National Human Rights Institution of Ghana, the Ombudsman of Ghana and an Anti-Corruption Agency and Ethics Office for the Public Service of Ghana. The commission was duly establish in 1993 with the passage of the CHRAJ Act, Act 456.
The commission is made up of a commissioner and two deputy commissioners, who are appointed by the
President of Ghana
The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2020 presidential elec ...
under Article 70 of the Ghanaian constitution. The commissioner must be qualified to be a
Justice of the Appeal Court and the deputies must be eligible to be justices of the
High Court.
The first commissioner was
Emile Short
Emile Francis Short is a Ghanaian judge and academic and the first Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana.
Early life and education
Short was born on February 6, 1943, in Cape Coast, Gold Coast to Joseph Short, a Sie ...
who retired in 2010, in 2004 he took an indefinite leave to serve as a Justice at the
United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, his deputy
Anna Bossman
Anna Bossman (born 1 December 1957) is a Ghanaian human rights advocate. She was formerly the director for the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department of the African Development Bank (AfDB). In 2017 she was appointed Ghana's ambassador to France. ...
served as the acting commissioner in his absence. He resume his post in 2009 and retired in 2010.
Madam
Lauretta Lamptey
Lauretta Vivian Lamptey is a former Ghanaian Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice. She is a lawyer and an investment banker.
Education
Lauretta Lamptey studied law at the University of Ghana, Legon where she gained the LL. B. ...
succeed him .
In July 2012, Joseph Akanjoluer Whittal was sworn in by
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
John Atta Mills
John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012) was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the governing party ...
as a deputy commissioner.
was appointed by
President Mahama to replace Lauretta Lamptey in 2016.
The commission serves as an ombudsman receiving and dealing with complaints about the proper functioning of public institutions and to provide redress. It appears it can do same for private entities due to the way Article 218 (c) is written.
List of Commissioners
See also
*
Human rights commission
A human rights commission, also known as a human relations commission, is a body set up to investigate, promote or protect human rights.
The term may refer to international, national or subnational bodies set up for this purpose, such as nationa ...
Economic and Organized Crime Unit
References
External links
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice
National human rights institutions
Organizations established in 1993
1993 establishments in Ghana
Human rights in Ghana
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