LMVCA files petition at UN against Govt, Police

Anti-government pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) has filed a petition at the Human Rights Council of the United Nations General Assembly against the Government of Ghana and the country’s Police Chief for “human rights violations.”

The petition, filed by Kwame Agyeman-Budu, Ibrahim Sanni, Issah Ballah and Mujeeb Mogtaari is dated September 30, 2015.

In the petition, the group accused the Government of Ghana of “violating the international human rights of the country and the people,” by “deliberating using their control of state institutions to turn the country into a police totalitarian state.”

In the view of the petitioners, the Police’s use of force and the court to prevent the group from picketing the country’s Electoral Commission on two separate occasions as part of their demand for a new electoral roll ahead of the 2016 general elections is a breach of: UN Charter, Chapter 1, article 1 (3); the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right.

The Police botched the pickets with an explanation that the Commission is a security installation.

On the group’s first attempt, the Police fired tear gas and water cannons at the demonstrators, as well as beat some of them up with truncheons and cudgels, for, allegedly, veering off agreed routes for the protest activity.

The second attempt was thwarted by a restraining order from the court.

Apart from insisting that the EC is a security installation, which cannot accommodate picketing, the Police Service said it gathered intelligence that indicated that robbers and criminals posed a threat to the country’s security, and, therefore, could not spare any officers to safeguard a picket.

Leaders of the group accused the Police of trumping up excuses to frustrate their protest.

When she spoke on the issue for the first time, the Chair of the EC, Charlotte Osei told Journalists at a press conference at the Commission on Wednesday, September 30, 2015, after a discussion with the various political parties about some proposed electoral reforms and concerns that the EC “is a security installation to the extent that at least, for nothing else, we have a data centre here, which carries very sensitive information and biometric details of 14 million Ghanaians.”

She demanded clarity on what the Alliance meant by picketing. “It depends on what you call picketing and they will have to define that.”

“You have to recognise that we have lives here, work is ongoing. As much as people have the right to demonstrate, others have the right to go about their duties normally,” Mrs Osei said.

“There are also people, who come to our premises to transact business with us, they should have the right to go about that business properly, and we also have assets here, which were bought with taxpayers’ money, which need to be also protected, so if the picketing is going to be disruptive to all that then I will have a problem with that personally… so I will have a problem with picketing to the extent that I don’t know how disruptive it would be to business and to safeguarding the lives of my staff and the Commission's properties, otherwise if you are going to picket on a park, why not?” she added.

The group, along with its other partners, is seeking redress from the UN to “act for humanity by finding that the Ghanaian Government is acting in violation of international human rights law, and, more importantly, with an intentional and reckless disregard for human rights, by unilaterally ordering and directing a ‘preemptive strike’ against unprovoked and legitimate expression of fundamental human rights of Ghanaians, which will have a scathing effect on peace and stability in the country.”