CHRAJ organises workshop for the Police

Takoradi May 24 - GNA - Mr. Kofi Duku Arthur, Western Regional Police Commander, on Wednesday said the Police Administration has not directed Police personnel to shoot suspects on sight.

He was speaking at a one-day workshop on human rights organised by the Regional Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for selected personnel at Takoradi.

Mr Arthur, who is a Deputy Commissioner of Police said Police personnel could shoot in self-defence in the course of their duty. He advised Police personnel to be circumspect in the use of weapons and to try as much as possible to arrest criminals without shooting them dead.

Mr Arthur said Policemen are not going to be promoted for killing criminals but those who arrest them could be rewarded. He hoped the workshop would reveal human rights lapses of the Police and improve the knowledge of the participants on human rights.

Mr Arthur said at the end of the workshop, participants are expected to demonstrate a good understanding of the relationship between human rights and human life and be social partners of CHRAJ in the promotion of fundamental human rights and the dignity of the human person. He said, "If this country is to become the great and strong Nation as envisaged by the founding fathers, we must collectively ensure that the ordinary Ghanaian on the street is not merely the object or beneficiary of good governance but that he or she is actively involved in its delivery".

"The Police Service, we believe is the one group to help realize this objective of good governance among all and sundry", Mr Arthur said. Mrs. Nana Yamfoah Amua-Sekyi, Acting Regional Director of CHRAJ, said human rights are those claims, entitlements and conditions that enable people to satisfy their basic needs with dignity and respect. She said they are claims that people have by virtue of the fact that they are human beings and are not based on colour, nationality, ethnicity, tribe, religion, race and gender.

Mrs Amua-Sekyi said economic, social and cultural rights are commonly referred to as "second-generation," rights.

She said they are those rights, which concern how people work and live together and how people meet the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, healthcare, education and cultural practices.

Mrs Amua-Sekyi said the enjoyment of civil and political rights is incomplete without the protection of economic, social and cultural rights.

She said human rights abuses occur when the rights of a person are denied or not respected.