Ecuador must implement and enforce laws and policies to protect the rights of Afro-Ecuadorians, the UN Working Group on People of African Descent said on Monday, calling for an end to the “discrimination, exclusion and extreme poverty they suffer.”
Monday, December 23, 2019
STEPS 6 & 7: What Can Be Done, and Who Must Act?
STEPS
6 & 7: WHAT CAN BE DONE, AND WHO MUST ACT?
The
issue (for example in our assault case) can be resolved or settled between the
victim and the perpetrator through effective action and advocacy by Human Rights
Activists and Defenders like us those of us on this page and others.
If
the above fails, then a legal process of the rule of law can be triggered.
IN
COURT – APPLICATION OF THE RULE OF LAW IN OUR CASE EXAMPLE:
If
a legal procedure is triggered in our scenario of Kwame vs Kofi then the
following references in law can be made from the Criminal Offences Act of Ghana
1960, Act 29.
SECTION
84 of the Criminal Offences Act of Ghana 1960, Act 29 states that: “A person
who unlawfully assaults another person commits a midemanour.”
Misdemeanours
are offences that are not regarded as serious. Such offences attract punishment
which should not exceed imprisonment for more than three (3) years. This does
not mean that the punishment is mandatorily a term of imprisonment.
Other
lesser modes of punishment like fines, executing of a bond to be of good
behaviour and a caution are all acceptable at law misdemeanours are offences
amenable to a settlement.
As
has already been rightly suggested, human rights education, advocacy and effective
timely action for are very important
STEP 5: Human Rights Issues Relating to What Happened
STEP
5: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES RELATING TO THE
VIOLATION OR ABUSE
To be
effective in any human rights activism, education, advocacy and the process of
the rule of law, it is important to clearly relate the issue (what happened) to
specific human rights provisions and provisions in law.
In our hypothetical
assault case of Kwame vs Kofi, we can cite the following provisions in human
rights instruments when acting:
UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
·
Article 3:
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
·
Article 5:
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
·
Article 8:
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national
tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the
constitution or by law.
·
Article 9:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’
RIGHTS
·
Article 4: Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be
entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person….
·
Article 5: Every individual shall have the right to the respect of
the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal
status.
·
Article 6: Every individual shall have the right to liberty and to
the security of his person…
UN
COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
·
Article 7: No one shall be subjected to
torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment…
·
Article 9: 1. Everyone has the right to
liberty and security of person
Article
17:
·
1.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his
privacy… nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.
·
2.
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference
or attacks.
1992 CONSTITUTION OF GHANA
Article 15
·
The
dignity of all persons shall be inviolable.
·
(2)
No person shall, whether or not he is arrested, restricted or detained, be
subjected to— (a) torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment;…
What Happened? Who is Affected and Who is the cause?
STEP 1: WHAT HAPPENED?
In human rights as well as in law, finding out what “really” happened
requires an analytical process. A lot of
human rights cases get thrown out of court or fail the judicial process
(procedure) not because what happened was not a wrong, but because the case was
not properly filed or described or named in its presentation. Let’s look at the
example below:
Kofi (a teacher) intentionally throws an object (e.g. a five-inch
cement block) at Kwame (a student) to cause harm to Kwame creating an apprehension
in Kwame of an imminent harmful or offensive contact of the object (i.e. the
five-inch block), this is a human right abuse of “threat to security of
person”, and in law it is referred to as “an assault.”
Thus, “WHAT HAPPENED” in the above scenario is “a threat to safety and
security of person”. At law, this is an “assault”.
An assault is an intentional act by one person that creates an
apprehension in another of an imminent fear of contact. An assault is carried
out by a THREAT of BODILY HARM CAUPSED WITH AN APPARENT, PRESENT ABILITY TO
CAUSE THE HARM. In the above;
1.
Kofi acted intentionally by throwing the
five-inch block at Kwame
2.
The five-inch block can cause harm
3.
Kofi’s “act” created an apprehension in Kwame of
an imminent threat of bodily harm.
PLAINTIFF AND DEFENDANT IN COURT.
·
A plaintiff is a person who brings a case
against another in a court of law.
·
A defendant is an individual, company, or
institution sued or accused in a court of law
Therefore, should the above case be presented in court, Kwame would be
the plaintiff while Kofi would appear as the defendant.
CASES OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND ASSAULT
There are several cases of such human rights violations or abuses at
law that we can cite to uphold or support this position on the issue. For example, Blake vs Bernard, Asante vs The
Republic, Osborne vs Veitch, Stephen vs Myers, Read vs Coker, among several
others.
READ vs COKER (PLAINTIFF vs DEFENDANT)
In the case of READ vs COKER, the brief FACTS were that the plaintiff
(Read) went to the defendant’s (Coker) workshop and was asked to leave but he
refused. As a result, the defendant and some of his workmen surrounded the
plaintiff, started pulling up their sleeves and aprons and threatened to break
his neck if he did not leave. The
plaintiff, in fear that they would beat him if he did not leave, left and sued
for assault.
The court HELD that the acts of the defendant constituted assault.
The PRINCIPLE applied by the court was that “assault lied where there
is an intention to assault and also the ability to carry the threat into
execution.”
As human rights activists and defenders, we need to clearly identify
the “issue” at hand. It is also very
helpful to clearly name the issue at law.
Step 2: WHO IS THE VICTIM?
Kwame is the victim or the affected person in our case. And law, and
should the case go to court, Kwame will be the plaintiff.
STEP 3: WHO CAUSED IT?
Kofi is the one who caused the assault. He is the perpetrator of the
offence and, at law, he will be the defendant.
Friday, December 20, 2019
Take Action for Justice
“if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you
have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
– Desmond Tutu.
Let’s take action for justice, always!
Human Rights Violations and Abuses
Human rights violations refer to the denial of
enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In other words, a human
right violation is to deny individuals their fundamental
moral entitlements.
Also, in a sense, a human right violation is to
treat a human being as if he/she is less than human and undeserving of respect
and dignity.
A human rights violation can be committed by
people who work for the State and their behaviour is then considered to be the
behaviour of the State. These agents of the state could be of many kinds, for example;
ministers, MPs, police officers, military officers, prosecutors, judges, and
other public servants, etc.
Human rights abuse is the violation of the basic rights of people by treating them wrongly.
Human rights abuse can also be explained as
the deliberate maltreatment of human beings including violations of
generally-accepted fundamental rights as stated by the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly
resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948.
Human rights abuses are carried out by both State
and non-state actors or agents (i.e. government officials and ordinary
individuals or groups of people).
Comments, Contributions, Questions and Answers are welcome!
Please join
discussions and actions on:
Twitter: @HumanRightsAtL1
WhatsApp: +233 268 237 423
Credit:
- Michelle Maiese, July 2003
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Human Rights At Law Forum: Join the education and discussions!
Human rights at law forum is an open forum where
individuals objectively discuss the systems and processes for the protection and promotion
of fundamental human rights and freedoms of all persons without
distinction.
We educate the public about human rights, and emphasize the intrinsic relationship between human
rights and the rule of law.
Our discussions and actions are based on the principles
of the universality and indivisibility of human rights and the processes of the
rule of law.
Join us!
- Moderator
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