Review CHRAJ Law-Haruna Iddrisu

The Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu has called for a review of the law establishing CHRAJ. He said the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) needed an enabling law to function effectively. According to him, the recent ruling by the Supreme Court quashing adverse findings made by the commission against Dr. Richard Anane was an indication that the law needed to be looked at again. CHRAJ was established in 1993 by Act 456 to investigate corruption and human rights abuses in the country. But last year the Commission investigated allegations of corruption, conflict of interest and abuse of power against the Minister of Roads and Transport and subsequently found him culpable of some of the allegations. Although the commission exonerated him of corruption, it found him culpable of conflict of interest, abuse of power and perjury. But the Supreme Court ruled that the commission did not have the mandate to investigate the matter because its action did not conform to the Constitution which required there to be a formal complainant. Following that ruling, Mr Haruna stated in Parliament on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 that the law be reviewed. A Deputy Attorney-General, Mr. Kwame Osei Prempeh, however, disagreed with him, arguing that the commission could still function effectively with the law as it is now. He told Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoe that CHRAJ could have investigated the allegations made against Dr. applying Article 108 (E) of the Constitution. That, he said was because the Supreme Court’s ruling was based on Article 108 (E) which required a complainant for CHRAJ to investigate the issues. According to him the Commission could have gone under Article 108 (A) which did not require a complainant. The Deputy AG stressed that the Court did not make a blanket ruling that CHRAJ Could not investigate allegations of corruption or other related matters.