US embassy cable - 05ACCRA889

UNCLAS  ACCRA 000889 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
PLEASE PASS TO AF/RSA ROBERT ZUEHLKE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: GH, KDEM, PHUM, PREL 
SUBJECT: EMBASSY GHANA HOSTS LIVELY HUMAN RIGHTS ROUNDTABLE 
 
REF: SECSTATE 31996 
 
1. Summary:  Post recently sponsored a human rights 
roundtable of 18 Ghanaian human rights contacts to seek 
feedback on the Human Rights and International Religious 
Freedom Reports and to explain USG human rights priorities. 
Participants appreciated the reports but thought they painted 
an overly negative picture.  Participants differed in 
perceptions of corruption in the judiciary and highlighted 
abuses associated with Christian prayer camps.  The Human 
Rights Report got significant press coverage.  End summary. 
 
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Overview of Feedback 
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2. On April 12 post hosted 18 human rights activists, 
journalists, and members of the police and judiciary to a 
human rights roundtable to discuss the recently published 
Human Rights Report (HRR). In advance of the meeting, post 
had sent each participant a copy of the latest HRR report and 
International Religious Freedom Report.  PolChief began the 
session with an overview of USG human rights and democracy 
assistance in Ghana and the history and purpose of our 
required human rights reporting. 
 
3.  Overall, participants praised the HRR report as a useful, 
comprehensive tool for promoting positive change in human 
rights. However, many participants felt the report lacked 
balance. It catalogs Ghana's shortcomings and isolated abuses 
while failing to focus attention on GOG efforts and NGO 
programs that promote human rights, they said. Participants 
also thought the HRR report relies on an overly narrow a 
definition of human rights.  One of the report's critics 
argued it should focus less on criminal justice abuses, and 
more on access to health care and education as human rights 
issues. A gender activist argued that women's issues should 
be more integrated into all sections of the HRR. 
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The Judiciary 
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4. Participants focused much of the discussion on whether our 
HRR report overstates corruption in the judiciary. Some 
argued that the perception of corruption is greater than the 
reality.  This is due in part to Supreme Court Chief Justice 
George Kingsley Acquah's frequent pronouncements against 
corruption, they said.  A senior Ghana police official 
suggested the lower courts, where disputants and defendants 
frequently buy their way out of trouble, were responsible for 
the judiciary's poor image.  An appeals court judge argued 
that corruption is far lower than the public believes because 
most of his colleagues die in penury and no other public 
agency is subject to the built-in appeals of the judiciary. 
There is a serious problem with detentions of inmates never 
formally charged.  These cases may contribute to the public's 
perception of the judiciary as corrupt, even if the judiciary 
itself is not be responsible for them, participants stated. 
 
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Religion and Human Rights Abuses 
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5. One NGO representative noted that our report lacked 
information about Christian prayer camp participants being 
chained, whipped, beaten and forced to confess to witchcraft. 
 According to NGO representatives, as many as 100 of these 
camps are in the Volta Region, and some of the worst 
offenders are associated with Charismatic churches. A print 
journalist said the victims at these camps are psychiatric 
patients or people with mental difficulties. Intimidated 
residents near urban prayer camps that worship all night will 
not complain because they may be labeled devils, a human 
rights journalist said. 
 
6.  Another gap in the HRR is coverage of cases in which 
medical treatment was denied because of religious beliefs. On 
the day of the roundtable, a surgeon reported that a 
14-year-old girl with a tumor growing on the back of her head 
might die because her father, a member of the Jesus Christ 
Apostolic Faith Church, refused to seek medical treatment for 
her based on his religious beliefs. GOG authorities are 
intervening in the case according to press reports. 
 
7.  The HRR and International Religious Freedom reports 
overemphasized the granting of slave girls to Trokosi 
priests, roundtable participants said. They agreed that this 
practice, perhaps Ghana's most publicized alleged abuse 
associated with religious beliefs, is largely in decline but 
would be difficult to completely eradicate because of 
cultural beliefs. 
 
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Comment 
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8. The Human Rights Report received significant press 
coverage.  Three daily newspapers published the whole report 
on Ghana in serial form.  HRR reporting on the political 
killing of a Northern Region politician in military custody 
received major media coverage.  Roundtable participants had 
read the reports closely, with notes on the margins, and were 
eager to speak up in two hours of lively discussion.  Some 
thought the discussion reaffirmed their commitment to human 
rights. For example, Appeals Court Justice N.S. Gbadegbe 
stated in the roundtable that "Such meetings reawaken those 
of us who have responsibilities in this sphere...as I 
remember the discussions and read through the report, I am 
able to regain my focus." The free flowing nature of the 
roundtable debate and the broad representation at the event 
in itself speaks to Ghana's positive human rights 
environment.  We will factor this feedback into future 
research and reporting on human rights issues in Ghana. 
 
 
YATES 
 
 
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