The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) has charged the police to treat cases of violent attacks allegedly carried out by New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters as criminal cases.

Council General Secretary, Reverend Opuni Frimpong has wondered why some individuals would want to foment dissension after the country has been lauded for holding a successful general election.

He wants the leadership of the various political parties especially the NPP and governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to disown supporters who are found disturbing the peace of the country.

The NDC has expressed its dissatisfaction in what it has described as selected attacks on its members following its defeat to the NPP in last week Wednesday’s presidential election.

CCG General Secretary, Reverend Opuni Frimpong

There have been nine alleged attacks reported across the country. There have been three in Twifo Praso, one in Teshie, two in Kukuom, two in Fiapre in the Brong Ahafo Region and one in Dunkwa Onofin in the Central Region.

National NDC Chairman, Kofi Portuphy at a news conference in Accra Thursday said the party would no longer countenance on such attacks.

He promised of retaliation if the attacks should continue after January 7 when President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would be sworn-in as leader of the country.
The police have warned the NDC to abandon its decision since they are already addressing the issue across the country.

Police PRO, Superintendent Cephas Arthur in an interview with Francis Abban, host of The Pulse programme on JOYNEWS channel on MultiTV said the police have arrested eight persons in connection with the attacks.

He said the NDC would breach the law if it takes matters into its own hands. Leave the issues to the police to address them, he told the NDC.

Rev. Frimpong said the nation has reached a level where political actors have to respect the laws of the land.

“Democracy thrives on law-abiding citizens,” he said, adding political parties have to restrain their supporters in the country.

“Such violent attacks are criminal issues,” he said, adding the Council expects the NPP to condemn alleged vandalism carried out by its supporters at Dunkwa-on-Offin.

The making of ‘democracy’s champions’: Understanding police support for democracy in Ghana

7th Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention Meeting

22 SEPTEMBER 2015. GENEVA. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, due to be formally adopted by governments around the world on 25-27 September 2015, includes the prevention of violence, and has several targets that address the underlying causes of violence. This week at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, some 200 of the world’s leading violence prevention experts gathered to discuss how best to harness the powerful opportunities for strengthening interpersonal violence prevention that are contained in the Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As detailed in WHO’s Global status report on violence prevention 2014, each year an estimated 475 000 people are murdered, millions more receive hospital emergency care due to injuries resulting from physical and sexual assault, and countless others suffer child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse, and elder abuse in silence. Beyond death, injury and disability, the consequences of non-fatal violence on physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health often last a lifetime. Violence also contributes to leading causes of death such as cancer, heart disease and HIV/AIDS, because victims are at an increased risk of adopting behaviours such as smoking, alcohol and drug misuse, and unsafe sex. Through such consequences, interpersonal violence erodes the human and social capital of countries, and can undermine development.

Interpersonal violence is predictable and preventable. Evidence shows that a major proportion of violence-related death and suffering is avoidable through investment in prevention approaches such as: parenting support; enhanced early childhood development programmes; life and social skills training for children and adolescents; reducing alcohol availability and access to firearms; problem-oriented policing; urban upgrading and poverty de-concentration. The responsibility for addressing interpersonal violence through these measures rests clearly with national governments.

“Given what we know about the substantial negative effects of interpersonal violence on individuals and societies, and its preventability, the forthcoming adoption of SDG targets for its prevention is a momentous opportunity for governments and people everywhere to scale up their commitment to and investments in prevention” said Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department for the Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention.

Four SDG targets concern violence prevention directly. Targets 5.2 and 5.3 focus on ending violence against women and girls, Target 16.1 calls for significantly reducing all forms of violence everywhere, and Target 16.2 for ending all forms of violence against children. Several other SDG targets focus on important underlying causes that cut across all forms of interpersonal violence, including targets for poverty reduction, increased social protection, reduced access to alcohol and drugs, enhanced early childhood development, improved urban planning, and strengthened rule of law and justice systems.

Commenting on these SDG targets, Dr Alexander Butchart, WHO Coordinator for the Prevention of Violence, noted that “WHO and its violence prevention partners have long called for an approach that integrates violence prevention goals into all relevant policies. At this 7th Milestones in a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention Meeting, we mapped out the links between the direct violence prevention SDG targets and those that address the underlying causes. We will then use this map to develop a policy template that governments can draw upon in designing national violence prevention plans and policies”.

Click here to watch

Source: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/7th_milestones_meeting/en/

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A widespread assumption among some advocacy groups is that the majority of Ghanaians are in favour of the death penalty. The first ever public opinion survey on the death penalty casts doubts on this assumption. The survey, which was conducted by the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCCJ, Ghana), involved household interviews with 2,460 residents of Accra. The study found that 48.3% of those interviewed were opposed to the death penalty in general; only 8.6% indicated they were strongly in favour of it. Further, the study found no evidence to support concerns about backlash effects of abolition for murder. Download Final Report HERE

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori and UN Crime Research Centre coordinator Sidhart Chaterjjee during the launch of atwo-days workshop to abolish Death Penalty, Thursday.

The Power Of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC) in-collaboration with the United Nations Crime Research Centre (UN-CRC), the Attorney General’s office, and the Department of Justice, on Thursday morning launched a workshop to have Kenya’s Death Penalty abolished.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori said the two-days workshop being held at Nairobi’s InterContinental Hotel, seeks to engage members of the public on whether death penalty is the suitable form of justice in the country.

She said the workshop also aims to establish whether Death Penalty results to inhumane, cruel or degrading treatment given that it is irrevocable and could result into punishing innocent people.

Speaking at the event, UN Crime Research Centre coordinator Sidhart Chaterjjee said about 170 UN members states have abolished the death penalty or no longer practice it.

He hailed Kenya for commuting death penalties to inmates and urged global leaders to push for the abolition of Death Penalty, and possibly replace it with life sentences.

The workshop has brought together various rights groups from around the globe.

This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted the sentences of all the country’s death row inmates to life imprisonment in October 2016, by sparing lives of 2,655 male and another 92 female inmates.