Young Peoples and Human Rights Ghana

A newly born baby girl is reported to have been stolen by an unidentified elderly woman from Barnor Hospital, a privately owned hospital in Accra. Witnesses say an elderly woman carrying a basket, who posed as a visitor picked up the baby yesterday afternoon. The mother of the stolen baby girl was reportedly asleep when the incident occurred. A source close to the missing baby but who wants to remain anonymous blamed the incident on poor security in the hospital. He told Myjoyonline.com he suspects everyone who was present in the hospital when the incident occurred of complicity. Another source at the hospital told Joy News the woman who pretended to be visiting, entered the hospital and without notice entered the ward of the woman who had delivered and made away with the baby. The case has been reported to the Dansoman Police Station where personnel say they are investigating but cannot give further details.

DOMINIC BUAH, alias Kabee, a taxi driver based at Aiyinasi in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, allegedly went berserk last week Tuesday and completely cut off the left hand of his nephew with a sharp cutlass. The victim, Ebenezer Bolo, a 17-year-old self-employed, is currently on admission at St. Martin de Porres Hospital at Eikwe. Though a complaint was lodged with the police at Aiyinasi after the incident, Kabee was alleged to have been walking about arrogantly in town for two days, boasting that he even killed a person in Nigeria without anything done to him. Speaking to DAILY GUIDE on his hospital bed, Bolo, who is Kabee’s elder brother’s son, said on 12th April 2011, he asked his father, Anthony Buah alias Bolo, for money to buy food that evening, but his father said he did not have any and left the house. He (Bolo) started grumbling that his father wanted to starve him. Kabee, who was then around, accused Bolo of being insolent. Without any provocation, Kabee slappe...

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) taskforce known as the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) went on rampage on Tuesday when they allegedly ripped off a trader’s ear with a pair of boots at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area. The trader, 35-year-old Ebenezer Obeng, had a bitter encounter with a number of the taskforce members on the evening of Tuesday, which virtually left his right ear torn off. Ebenezer, who happens to be a shoe seller, narrated his ordeal to Peace FM and said about 9pm on Tuesday, he was hawking in front of the Allied Filling station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle when a group of AMA staff accosted him with his products. He claimed they accused him of flouting the AMA by-law that prohibits selling on the streets and pavements in the city. Ebenezer said they tried to seize his goods which he had by then exhibited in front of a locked shop and for that matter was not ready to release it to them since he was not selling on either the street or the pavement. This, according to him, l...

Debating Silence by Michelle Dobrovolny on August 4, 2010 · in IYIP Rights Media Internships,Malawi The posters created by local Malawians in a clandestine campaign for gay rights. The caller on the other end of the line would only dance around the issue, never daring to explicitly state his purpose: “Are you the Canadian reporter?” “Um, possibly. Who are you?” “You want to know something?” “That depends. Are you Mwanajuma’s* friend?” “Maybe. What is it you want to know?” It felt like I was arranging a drug deal. Actually, I was trying to find a gay Malawian who could speak, even anonymously, about his or her experiences in a country in which two gay men were recently sentenced – and subsequently released following international outcry – to 14 years of hard labour for their relationship. This cryptic phone call was about as far as I got. Homosexuality, treated in Malawi as a criminal matter, has been pushed into dark corners where people hardly dare to utter the word gay. There is no d...

Frederick Asiamah28 March 2011 Pressure is mounting on Ghana to introduce Biotech/GM [Genetically Modified] Crops into its agricultural framework and allow for the production of biotech foods on commercial scale. If Ghana accepts, then she will no longer grow crops like cotton, maize and cowpea or even banana using the traditional farming methods and waiting for the plant to mature through a natural cycle. Rather, through laboratory manipulations "improved varieties" of crops could be developed by shortening the maturity cycle of the plant, as well as, introduced certain "desired traits" such as drought and pest resistance into the plant. The latest call on Ghana to accept GM crops was made last week by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) at the launch of the "Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2010" report authored by Clive James, Founder and Chair of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (I...

Posted on Wednesday 20 April 2011 - 11:00 Emmanuel Padi, AfricaNews reporter in Accra, Ghana The 2010 Report on Human Rights in Ghana by the U.S State Department has cited the Ghana Police Service for using brutal force on suspected criminals as well as prolonged detention of suspects. It also cited the service for corruption by setting up barriers to extort money from motorists. DSP Cephas Arthur, acting Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service has admitted that the Police administration is plagued with personnel who extort monies from the citizenry but insisted the situation could not be generalized to mean the entire administration is corrupt. DSP Arthur was reacting to the human rights abuses and corruption allegations on a private radio station in Accra and stated that the Police Service accepts some aspects of the report as the true reflection of what pertains in reality but equally rejected other aspects because those were not representative of the truth. He further...

Safety Tips How not to get beaten up and robbed Take great care when meeting people on line. Below are some of the things scammers have said to people when arranging to meet them: Bring your phone (because they want to steal it) Dress sexy / wear your good clothes, etc (because they will strip you naked and sell your clothes) Come alone (so that there is no one to help you) Come to Tema! Sometimes they might text you a sexy message and ask you to respond. If you text back something sexual they can use that as evidence against you with the police. Yahoo chats and your online photos can also be used as evidence. Also get suspicious if the person is in too much of a rush to meet you. Identity Theft If you do not take care people can use your pictures, ID or name in order to scam others. Never ask someone to contact you through a friend’s phone. There have been several reports of people being scammed by the person’s friend. You can be held responsible. If someone asks you to contact them t...