CHRAJ-MEDIA COLLABORATION ESSENTIAL (PAGE 21)

THE Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Richard Quayson, has called for effective collaboration between the media and the commission in dealing with human rights issues.
He said people ought to understand human rights issues to prevent others from trampling upon their rights.
According to him, that would also empower the public to hold public officers accountable for their actions.
Addressing a day’s workshop for media personnel at Wa in the Upper West Region, Mr Quayson said many people were ignorant about human rights issues and needed to be educated.
He said in order to reach out to more people, CHRAJ needed the media to make inroads and bring issues on human rights to the doorsteps of people.
On what CHRAJ was doing to prevent abuse of the rights of people, the deputy commissioner said a manual to improve human rights in schools had been developed for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to discourage the bullying and maltreatment of students.
“We are also preparing a code of conduct and documents on conflict of interest for public officers. This is aimed at improving the level of integrity for public life”, Mr Quayson noted.
He said most of the complaints received by his outfit were on human rights and administrative injustices, adding that on the average, the commission received 14,500 complaints annually, out of which about 85 per cent were disposed of in a year.
He said CHRAJ would not shield anybody; neither would it allow anyone to use the commission to ridicule anybody, and stressed that if the country dealt with corruption and human rights issues as well as administrative injustices, it would receive the appropriate public recognition.
“We need to put our house in order so that our wealth does not drain out, especially with the oil find,” Mr Quayson emphasised.
He also said CHRAJ was very serious about eradicating corruption in the country.