The Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) wants security agencies to devise measures to rid their operations of torture.

CHRAJ also called on persons who have suffered any form of torture by any person or group of persons to report to the appropriate authorities.

“The Commission calls on state actors, particularly the security agencies, to respect Ghana’s obligations under international law and to take steps to rid its operations of the use of torture.”

The Commission made the call in commemoration of this year’s International Day in Support of Torture Victims today, June 26, 2022.

It wants the Attorney General, chief legal advisor to the government and Parliament, to “take the necessary steps towards amending the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29 by criminalizing torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”.

It said the Act should ensure that it “criminalizes torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in accordance with the recommendations of the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez Country Report on Ghana in 2014 so as to cure the gap in the existing criminal jurisprudence and to end the impunity being perpetrated by our security services who are public officers on ordinary law-abiding citizens.”

The Commission believes this will “end the impunity being perpetrated by security agencies on law-abiding citizens.”

The statement also urged the State to “take steps to prohibit and prevent torture, by conducting independent, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of torture or ill-treatment.”