Ghana
Ghana is a stable West African country, classified as a weak democracy by the Global State of Democracy data. It is in the high-performing range with regard to Representative Government and Checks on Government. It is a mid-range performer in Fundamental Rights, with challenges such as discrimination against LGBTQIA+ communities and the under-representation of women in politics. Despite a thriving civil society space, accentuated by the proliferation of private media after 1993, it is mid-performing in Media Integrity. Likewise, in the past five years, Ghana has consistently performed at a low level in Impartial Administration, particularly in Absence of Corruption. Ghana is a lower middle-income economy, dependent on services (50 per cent), agriculture (21 per cent), and industry (29 per cent).
With a constitution that includes features of U.S. Presidential and British Westminster systems of government, the country has had eight successful elections since the re-introduction of multi-party elections in 1992, preceded by two decades of military rule. Elections are competitive and generally free and fair with multiple turnovers of power between the two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). However, two disputed presidential elections (2012 and 2020) had to be adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
Ghana is a multi-ethnic country, dominated by the Akan ethnolinguistic group (47.5 per cent of the population), with significant minorities of the Mole-Dagbani (16.6 per cent), Ewe (13.9 per cent), Ga-Dangme (7.4 per cent), and Gurma (5.7 per cent) ethnic groups, among others (8.9 per cent). Political parties have strong ethnic associations that predate the return to democracy. The NPP draws its core support from Akan ethnolinguistic enclaves in the Ashanti Regions and has roots in Akan-led political parties such as the erstwhile United Gold Coast Convention, National Liberation Movement, and Progress Party. The NDC was founded by the former junta-leader Jerry Rawlings (from the Ewe community) during the transition from military rule, and it continues to rely on the Ewes from the Volta Region and draws on heavy support from northern Ghana. Despite parties’ core ethnolinguistic bases, it takes cross-ethnic coalitions to win presidential elections, thereby making ethnic and regional balance crucial considerations in the formation of any government. Also, party politics is characterized by strong polarization reflected in ideological differences between the NPP (center right) and the NDC (center left), although the two parties are mostly indistinguishable in policies and programmes.
There are two key areas to watch in the coming years. First, the country’s low score in Absence of Corruption merits monitoring, especially as the Office of the Special Prosecutor established to prosecute specific cases of public and private sector corruption proceeds with its work. Second, addressing fundamental inequities in female representation in higher political office could impact Representative Government and amplify the voices of women in consolidating Ghana’s democracy. Similarly, the potential passing of the pending Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which criminalizes identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and all sexual identities that do not conform to the binary category of male and female, could impact Fundamental Rights performance.
Monthly Event Reports
February 2024 | Parliament passes new LGBTQIA+ law; President asks Court to rule on its constitutionality
On 28 February, the Parliament passed a law that would impose new penalties not only on same-sex sexual acts (up to five years in prison), but also on people who are open about a non-heterosexual orientation (up to three years in prison). The law, entitled the Promotion of Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, had its first reading in Parliament in 2021, but received a great deal of opposition within Ghana and abroad. Ghana’s Finance Minister warned the government that approval of the law could endanger funding from the World Bank on which Ghana’s economic health depends. On 5 March, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated that he will not assent to the law and give it legal force until after a review of its constitutionality by the Supreme Court.
January 2024 | Six people sentenced to death after conviction for treason
On 24 January, the High Court in Accra concluded Ghana’s first treason trial since 1966, convicting six people of high treason and sentencing them to death by hanging. Three others who had been charged were found not guilty. All nine co-defendants had pleaded not guilty. The group was accused of plotting to overthrow the Ghanaian government in 2019. They were arrested in 2019 in a large police operation that also seized a cache of firearms, ammunition, and three grenades. Three of those convicted were members of the armed forces. Ghana has not carried out an execution since 1993, and abolished capital punishment for most crimes in August 2023 while leaving open the possibility to impose the death penalty in cases of treason.
July 2023 | Cabinet minister arrested on suspicion of corruption
Amidst a severely challenging national economic situation that includes a shortage of foreign reserves, a Ghanaian cabinet minister was arrested in late July on suspicion of corruption after a large amount of foreign currency (one million US dollars and three-hundred thousand euros) was reported stolen from her home. After news of the reported crime became public, Cecilia Abena Dapaah resigned from her position as Minister of Sanitation in President Nana Akufo-Addo’s cabinet. She herself was arrested and questioned several days later. Dapaah’s resignation leaves only two women in the 19-person cabinet.
January 2023 | State institutions to apologize to journalist who was wrongly arrested
In June 2019, shortly after publishing articles critical of the National Security Minister, Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri (editor of the online media agency Modern Ghana) and Emmanuel Britwum (a reporter for the publication) were arrested in a manner tantamount to abduction by agents of Ghana’s National Security agency. Their electronic devices were seized, and Ajarfor claims to have been tortured during interrogations. Charges of cybercrime against the men were dismissed by the Accra High Court soon after and the journalists were released. Ajarfor then launched legal proceedings in the Human Rights Division of the High Court against the state agencies involved. On 13 January 2023, the court ordered the heads of three state agencies to apologize to Ajarfor for the violations of his rights, and to compensate him for the damage done to him.
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