Stop all forced evictions - Amnesty International

Accra, Sept. 23 GNA - Amnesty International Ghana (AI Ghana) on Thursday called on the government to immediately stop all forms of forced evictions.

The group also urged gove rnment to develop and adopt concrete and effective measures to protect the population from forced evictions. Mr Lawrence Amesu, Director, AI Ghana, was speaking at a seminar it organized in Accra for media personnel on housing rights. The workshop, which is on the theme: "Promoting the Right to Adequate Housing in Ghana - The Role of the Media" was to educate journalists on the right of every citizen to gain and sustain a secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity. Mr Amesu also charged the government to develop guidelines for evictions, which should be based on the basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement and comply with international human rights law.

He said the July 23, 2010 exercise carried out by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and a private developer when they razed down structures at CMB Abuja in the city raised a lot of human rights issues and concerns.

Mr Amesu said these forced evictions usually deprived residents, especially women and children, of their homes and means of earning a living.

He said government should also respect the rights of all victims of forced evictions to an effective remedy including access to justice and the right to reparation as well as restitution, rehabilitation, compensation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. Mr Vicent Adzahlie-Mensah, Board Chairman, AI Ghana, who made a presentation on "Monitoring and Reporting on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Actions to Realize Housing Rights" urged the media to go beyond their normal reportage on human right violations by getting to the bottom of the issues.

Mr Adzahlie-Mensah, who is also a Research Fellow, University of Education, Winneba, said the media had the responsibility to ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations were brought to justice. The media should also seek remedy or compensation for the victims. 23 Sept. 10