Myjoyonline.com – The UN’s special rappoteur on torture, Juan Mendez has been in the country since November 7 to assess the levels of cruel or inhuman treatment in the country’s prisons.
Mr. Mendes says his findings point to severe torture in some of Ghana’s prisons.
Prisons are an integral part of our justice system. They help reform and deter lawbreakers. But when it becomes a place of torture, then serious questions need to be answered. The United Nations special rappoteur on torture, Juan E. Mendez, says his findings point to severe torture in some Ghanaian prisons.
Mr. Mendez has been in the country since November 7 to access challenges regarding torture and other cruel or inhuman treatment in Ghana.
Mr. Mendez says he has drawn the attention of the prisons service to these cases and expects action.
“Independent and impartial enquiry into the incident to establish accountability to whoever may be responsible for it, I have also asked her [Mrs Matilda Baffour Awuah, Acting Director General, Ghana Prisons Service] to give me some information of the result of the enquiry.”
He told the media in Accra Thursday that: “We saw children shackled. Children, who evidently did not have mental disorders, they had Neurological disorders. Some autistic, others epileptic and the shackling does not help them at all at least not from a medical perspective”.
He mentioned specifically the treatment of people at the Nyakumasai and Edumfa prayer camps, noting that, “I had a conversation with them and some were reasonable and coherent. That is why I have a serious concern as to whether there is a need for shackling under the human rights law and the Ghanaian law.”
But Mendez admits the psychiatric hospitals he visited were underfunded and under equipped although the staff is self-motivated.
The special rapporteur on torture also decried congestion in prisons, adding that their medical conditions are pitiful and sentences served for crimes are too long.
Meanwhile, director of Public Relations of the Ghana Prisons Service, DSP Vitalis Aiyeh, noted that they have not yet received the report officially.
He said the constitution frowns on torture at correctional centres, maintaining that the service respect that provision under the constitution so “we don’t condone torturing of prisoners”.
He therefore pointed out that any officer, who tortures a prisoner is sanctioned when found.
