Poverty locks people of Asante
Akim South out of justice
Juaso-Ashanti, Feb.
6, Ghanadot/GNA – Most people in
Asante Akim South District are
unable to take advantage of free
services of the Commission on Human
Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ),
and pursue justice due to poverty.
Some victims of human right
violations for instance cannot
afford transport fare to the
district capital to report such
cases to CHRAJ and other appropriate
institutions.
Mr. Isaac Kwame Acheampong, the
District Director of CHRAJ, who
disclosed this in an interview with
GNA at Juaso-Ashanti, expressed
worry that the rights of the
vulnerable, especially women and
children were violated with impunity
and culprits were unpunished.
He said the District Directorate of
CHRAJ recorded 69 human rights
violations last year out of which 56
were either settled or referred to
other State agencies with 13
pending.
Mr. Acheampong said 12 cases
concerning children, made up of one
defilement case and 11 child
maintenance and custody cases, were
reported to the Commission.
He said the lack of adequate
transport, logistics and funds for
public education, mainly in the
rural areas, militated against the
operations of CHRAJ and called for
urgent steps to solve the problems.
Mr. Acheampong stressed that that
the dispensation of justice in the
district was becoming the preserve
of a few people because most
residents, including those in the
hinterland could not seek redress to
human rights abuses.
GNA
