Country Director (Ghana) of the world’s largest human rights organisation, Amnesty International, Genevieve Partington has raised concerns over a number of human rights infractions taking place in Ghana which is beginning to dent the democratic credential of the West African country.

Pointing to the latest global report on the State of Human Rights (2022/23) issued by Amnesty International, Ms. Partington assessed Ghana’s performance by indicating that “There are highs and lows in Ghana, I think every year something comes up, we go low sometimes you know, a few steps forward a few steps back. For example, we just launched our State of Human Rights report and it covers Ghana and Ghana is not looking too good,” she said on JoyNews' Foreign Affairs.

According to Amnesty International, last year 2022 saw “new, renewed and protracted conflicts that led to appalling tragedies.

"Some of them amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Across the world, authorities continued their heavy-handed repression of universal freedoms”.

It added that “Economic crises led to rocketing price rises for food and fuel and increased pressure on health and other social services. The most marginalised were hit the hardest, and inequality rose. Women, girls and LGBTI people faced gender-based violence and discrimination”.

The Amnesty International Report 2022/23 connects these issues at global and regional levels.

The report which analyses the 2022 human rights situation in 156 countries gave a specific review of how some human rights infractions played out in Ghana.

“There were several violations of the right to freedom of expression and police use of excessive force. Forced evictions continued. Two bills to abolish the death penalty were introduced to parliament. A bill further criminalizing LGBTI people remained pending. Women continued to experience discrimination. Child labour was reported," it said.

Genevieve Partington while breaking down the concerns on Joy News, called for enhanced policy measures to tackle discrimination against women and children as well as address the emerging human rights concerns documented in the report.