GENEVA (3 November 2017) – Ghana’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Tuesday, 7 November 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Ghana is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 6 to 17 November.  Ghana’s first and second UPR reviews took place in April 2008 and October 2012, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: the abolition of the death penalty; improving detention conditions; investigating and prosecuting police abuse; establishing a national preventive mechanism against torture; combatting child labour; guaranteeing free and accessible education; warranting freedom of information and decriminalizing defamation; protecting human rights and natural resources in mining; eradicating the gender pay gap; combatting corporal punishment and domestic violence, including violence against women and girls, female genital mutilation, ritual servitude, forced early marriage and witchcraft accusations; fighting homophobia and decriminalizing homosexual conduct; halting stigmatization of persons with disabilities; improving healthcare related education, infrastructure and legal safeguards; addressing confinement and forced medication of mental health patients, including in prayer camps; and protecting migrants’ rights.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Ghana on 7 November can be found here.

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Tuesday, 7 November (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles.  During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Ghana will be headed by Ms. Gloria Afua Akuffo, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Ghana are: Paraguay, Bangladesh and South Africa.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Ghana will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Ghana at 16.30 on 10 November.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.  The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.   

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711 /  rgomez@ohchr.org , Sarah Lubbersen at +41 (0) 22 917 9689 / slubbersen@ohchr.org or Cédric Sapey at +41 (0) 22 917 9751 / csapey@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr

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