Seek Counsel of Professionals When Addressing Legal Issues- CHRAJ Commissioner

The Commissioner at the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr. Joseph Whittal, has entreated citizens to seek counsel of professionals when addressing legal issues in the country.

Speaking at a dialogue today, December 23, 2021 in Accra on the consolidation of Ghana’s democracy, he averred that it is important to seek counsel in order to help one avoid some contravening provisions made in the constitution.

Joseph Whittal stated that the law itself could be difficult to interpret and as such it’s advisable to seek help at the various institutions to get more clarification on legal issues.

“That is why the courts of competent jurisdiction have been tasked by the constitution to interpret the provisions. Seek counsel of professionals when addressing legal issues”.

Joseph Whittal

Touching on culture and human rights in legal issues, Joseph Whittal noted that the nation has aspects of culture that have human rights but other aspects of culture have also been prohibited. The problem, he stated, now is with identifying which ones are prohibited because culture is defined in conjunction with a particular community’s acts .

“So, if there is a community practice which is a cultural practice, say in a different community, will you say that until there is a legal proscription against that particular practice, you can sit at your own corner and say that is not allowed and that is is not part of the cultural practice and that’s a human right? That’s the problem”.

Joseph Whittal

The Commissioner made this known at the dialogue organized by the Ministry of Parliamentray Affairs to deepen the collaboration between the ministry and the independent governance institutions to support the consolidation of Ghana’s democracy.

Intensify education on roles of governance institutions

Speaking at the event as well, the Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), George Sarpong, called for the intensification of education by institutions such as the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on the roles independent governance institutions play to support a consolidation of Ghana’s democracy.

He posited that these institutions must ensure that the citizens understand the roles and rules thoroughly to help democracy and also with law implementation in the country.

Touching on some challenges with the media, George Sarpong revealed that with both the media and stakeholders, there are some concepts which creates confusion when it comes to matters of the law.

“There’s another and I mean two concepts related that we think that both the courts and analysts confuse; the question of censorship and gate keeping. We speak of censorship where an external authority on the veil of punishment prohibits somebody from carrying out a certain kind of conduct”.

George Sarpong

George Sarpong explained that the concept of gate keeping is when the journalist or a media house through their own internal process seek to ensure that whatever they publish, responds to the debates of ethics and professionalism.

“Again, there is a bit of confusion even when you read the law in terms of these concept. So, that is one level of the dificulty. Until the law is clarified with that respect, we are going to have difficulty”.

George Sarpong

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