The former Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo, has stated that everyone needs to learn about the laws that protects human rights in order to enjoy its benefits.
She affirmed that, the disregard and contempt for human rights had resulted in barbaric acts which had outraged the conscience of mankind and all effort need to be taken to protect human rights in all situations.
The Former Chief Justice was speaking at a public lecture organised by the Central University College, in Accra.
The lecture series organised sought to bring important issues to the table for deliberations and decision making.
The former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo speaking on the topic “Enforcement of Human Rights in Africa” asserted that Human rights came from God and that human beings and human institutions acknowledge that fact hence every effort must be made to enforce it.
She said the universal declaration of human rights conferred 29 rights on everyone, and these included freedom from slavery, freedom from torture or degrading treatment, freedom from arbitrary arrest, right to nationality and right to own property.
The Former Chief Justice said the advent of the world in which human rights shall enjoy freedom of speech, belief and freedom from fear and want, was the highest aspiration of the common people.
Justice Akuffo added that democracy was nothing unless fundamental human rights were backed by good governance.
She also mentioned that the respect of the African continent to the collective realization of human rights came into being on the 21st October 1986, when the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right (ACHPR) was adapted and ratified by every member state of the African Union and covers civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
This, she said, was a document in recognition of collective right (people’s right) and the right to development. Adding that, the charter also established the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa.
She said the ACHPR adopted a protocol for the establishment of African Court on Human and People’s Right which came into force in 2004, stating that the court was to complement the work of the commission, interpret the charter and the enabling protocol, and was also charged with the interpretation of treaties that were ratified by member states.
The member states adopted the protocol to the African charter on human and people’s rights, on the rights of women in Africa and that came into force in 2005 and is commonly referred to as the Maputo protocol.
Some of the countries that signed had placed reservations on some of its provisions. She said beyond the regional and sub-regional legal instruments, African states had their own declarations of human rights within their National Constitutions.
She however urged everyone to test the law in all aspects because African or international human rights are standards that are applicable to all humans across the globe.
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