The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is urging Ghanaians to insist on their human rights and make demands from duty bearers to ensure that their rights are not infringed upon.
Access to quality education, good roads, quality and affordable healthcare are among the many rights due citizens however, many still struggle to access them.
But according to the Director of Human Rights at CHRAJ, Dr. Isaac Annan, citizens must begin to actively demand those rights and not see them as favours being done them by politicians or state authorities.
“Human rights are entitlements and there is no need for you to look over your shoulder before claiming your right… Before you claim a right, you need to know what your rights are,” he said.
Dr. Annan added that “Most of the promises made by politicians are human rights for which the people must know that whether the politicians are there or not, the state authorities are bound to implement those rights. It is not a favour, but increasingly we are tempted to believe that without the politician telling us, we can’t have those rights.”
He said the democracy practised in the country is bound to fail if the rights of citizens are not guaranteed and are continuously infringed upon.
While calling on Civil Society Organizations and the media to increase education and awareness creation on the rights of Ghanaians to be able to hold duty bearers to account, he suggested that the current state of affairs shows that Ghana has “a long way to go” in having citizens’ basic rights fully guaranteed.
Dr. Annan further urged the public to reported issues of corruption and human right abuses to CHRAJ for appropriate action to be taken.