Freedom in the World 2001 - Ghana

2001 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 2.5
Civil Liberties: 3
Political Rights: 2

Ratings Change

Ghana's political rights rating changed from 3 to 2, and its status from Partly Free to Free, because of free and fair elections that led to a peaceful transfer of power to an opposition candidate after two decades under the leadership of Jerry Rawlings.

Overview

Ghana made history in 2000 with a peaceful transfer of power that occurred when an opposition candidate defeated an incumbent in free and fair presidential elections. The election was hailed in Africa and abroad as a successful test of Ghana's democracy, despite isolated incidents of violence. John Kufuor, a businessman, replaces President Jerry Rawlings, a former fighter pilot who was in power for two decades. Kufuor soundly secured a victory with 56.7 percent of the vote in the second round of polling, compared with 43.3 percent for his opponent, Vice President John Atta Mills. The government continued to make efforts to improve human rights in the country during the year, but intimidation of the media continued.

Once a major slaving center and long known as the Gold Coast, the former British possession became black Africa's first colony to achieve independence. After the 1966 overthrow of its charismatic independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah, the country was wracked by a series of military coups for 15 years. Successive military and civilian governments vied with each other in both incompetence and mendacity.

In 1979, Flight Lieutenant Rawlings led a coup against the ruling military junta and, as promised, returned power to a civilian government after a purge of corrupt senior army officers. However, the new civilian administration did not live up to Rawlings's expectations, and he seized power again in December 1981 and set up the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC). The PNDC junta was radically socialist and populist and brutally repressive, banning political parties and free expression. Facing a crumbling economy, Rawlings, in the late 1980s, transformed Ghana into an early model for the structural adjustment programs urged by international lenders. A new constitution adopted in April 1992 legalized political parties, and Rawlings was declared president after elections that were neither free nor fair.

Ghana's economy has suffered in recent years as the result of a fall in the world prices for cocoa and gold, which are among the country's main foreign exchange earners. The country has also been battered by a sharp drop in the value of its currency, the cedi. Ghanaians are likely to be scrutinizing the new government's efforts at revitalizing the economy.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The December 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections under Ghana's 1992 constitution allowed Ghanaians their first opportunity since independence to choose their representatives in genuine elections. A broad civic education campaign and international assistance with registration and other electoral procedures preceded voting. However, the elections were also marked by the ruling party's extensive use of state media and patronage to support incumbents. Rawlings's five percent reelection victory, which extended his 16-year rule, was also assured by opposition disunity.

About 200 international observers monitored voting in the 2000 presidential and parliamentary elections and hailed the process as free and fair. The opposition, led by Kufuor, of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), alleged intimidation and other irregularities as the second round of voting in the presidential polls began, but those claims dissipated as the polling proceeded and his looming victory became apparent. Kufuor had led the seven candidates in the first round of voting in December with 48.4 percent, followed by Mills, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), with 44.8 percent. The opposition also broke the NDC's stranglehold on parliament, with the NPP winning 99 of the 200 seats available, compared with 92 for the NDC, which had previously held 133 seats.

Ghanaian courts have acted with increased autonomy under the 1992 constitution, but are still occasionally subject to executive influence. Traditional courts often handle minor cases according to local customs that fail to meet constitutional standards. Scarce judicial resources compromise the judicial process, leading to long periods of pretrial detention under harsh conditions.

Ghana continued in 2000 to improve its respect for human rights, but abuses by security forces, including arbitrary detention and beatings, continued. Amnesty International expressed concern in August over the detention of a middle-aged couple whose son had been involved with a daughter of President Rawlings. The son said he was detained and beaten before finally fleeing to Britain. When his parents sought his whereabouts, they were accused of assaulting a police officer and were detained.

The right to peaceful assembly and association is constitutionally guaranteed, and permits are not required for meetings or demonstrations. Numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate openly and freely. Religious freedom is respected, but there is occasional tension between Christians and Muslims and within the Muslim community itself.

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected. Despite the licensing of several independent radio and television stations, however, the Rawlings government allowed little expression of opposition views over the national radio and television networks as well as in the two daily newspapers it controls. Ghanaians enjoy open political debate reflected in a number of robust private print media. Financial problems and government pressure, however, constrain the independent press. The government uses criminal libel laws that make reporting false information a felony in order to intimidate the media. Other obscure and rarely used laws have been invoked to intimidate the media.

In November 2000, the publisher and editor of the private Ghanaian Chronicle, Nana Kofi Coomson, was arrested for allegedly having diskettes that authorities said were stolen from the headquarters of the NDC. He was later released on bail. A media critic on state-run Ghana Television was arrested in November for allegedly making libelous statements against President Rawlings. Chris FM, a rural private radio station, was temporarily closed in November following allegations that a parliamentary candidate had used the station to broadcast inflammatory statements against political rivals of the NDC. Violence between supporters of the NDC and NPP erupted after the broadcast, leaving more than a dozen people injured. In September, the news editor of The Crusading Guide, Sedi Bansah, was arrested by the deputy minister of defense and faced pressure to disclose the identity of a source.

Ghanaian women suffer societal discrimination that is particularly serious in rural areas, where opportunities for education and wage employment are limited, despite their equal rights under the law. Women's enrollment in universities, however, is increasing. Domestic violence against women is said to be common, but often remains unreported. Legislation in 1998 doubled the prison sentence for rape. Women protested in Accra in December against what they said was police inaction regarding an alleged serial killer who has killed at least 30 women in the past three years. NGOs and the national human rights commissioner are campaigning against the tro-kosi system, in which young girls are forced into indefinite servitude to traditional priests.

The government has not interfered with the right of workers to associate in labor unions and has encouraged pluralism in labor organizations, but civil servants may not join unions. The Industrial Relations Act demands arbitration before strikes are authorized. The Ghana Federation of Labor was inaugurated in 1998 and is intended to serve as an umbrella organization for several other labor unions. The right to strike is guaranteed, but there have been no legal strikes since independence.