Speakers at a symposium in Accra last Tuesday to mark the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, have called for a sustained national effort to cater for the welfare and development of survivors of torture.
According to them, victims of torture needed medical, psychological, legal and vocational support, since they were left with guilt, shame and trauma and were usually broken.
This year’s celebration is on the theme: “Right to rehabilitation.”
Torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment to people are offences prohibited in all circumstances under international law.
The Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Joseph Whital, suggested that an independent body should be set up to investigate the recurring brutality by the security services.
The need for rehabilitation
Mr Whital emphasised the need for rehabilitation of torture victims to empower them to re-start their lives.
“Rebuilding the life of someone whose dignity has been shattered is a lengthy process and it is one that demands long-term medical, psychological and social support,” he stated.
Article One of the United Nations convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed”.
Mr Whital explained that rehabilitation must address the medical, psychotherapeutic, psychosocial treatment, legal services and social reintegration.
“A holistic service approach is needed to address the needs of individual torture survivors, as well as their affected family members and communities, as a matter of right and not a privilege,” he said.
The Chief Executive of Amnesty International, Mr Lawrence Amesu, explained that torture was a violation of human dignity, yet people went through physical, psychological or emotional torture daily.
He noted that the consequence of torture was a breach of the rule of law, when those who were supposed to uphold the law rather broke it, saying that “it damages the democratic process”.
He explained that torture caused harm to state institutions when they used it against the public, adding that it caused the police to be feared, security forces distrusted and politicians not respected.
Suggestions to the Government
“Government must make sustained efforts to ensure and improve the conditions of places of detention in our country,” Mr Amesu said.
He urged the government to abolish the death penalty completely by taking it away from the statute books. Though the death penalty is not practised in Ghana it still has legal backing.
He urged teachers to use reinforcement strategies to encourage students to do the right things and abolish corporal punishment in schools.
Rehabilitation programmes in prisons
Highlighting the rehabilitation programmes in the prisons, Deputy Director of Prisons, Mr Sylvester Rabbles said the programmes for prisoners were intended to afford the prisoners the opportunity to make a living when they were released.
They are also trained to build their literacy skills, as well as impart agricultural, technical and vocational skills in them.
Mr Rabbles noted that there were also a clinical psychological counselling, as well as spiritual and moral guidance organised for the prisoners.
He said the aim and goals of the prison systems could be achieved if the public shifted the ends of criminal administration from punishment to correction.
By Salomey Appiah
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