Prime News Ghana

Amnesty International report: Only 23 lawyers available in Ghana

By PrimeNewsGhana
amnesty_international_releases_2017/2018_report
Amnesty International releases 2017/2018 report
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Amnesty International’s 2017/2018 annual report has indicated that only some 23 lawyers are currently offering legal aid services in Ghana as against over 28 million people.

"Access to justice remained limited, especially for people from low-income backgrounds. The Ghana Legal Aid Scheme suffered from funding shortages. Just 23 lawyers offering legal aid were available to the country's population of more than 28 million people." the report stated.

It also revealed that about several people had been put on death row, including 6 who were officially considered mentally and intellectually disabled people who had no proper legal representation during trial.

Amnesty International in its report stated that fewer than one out of every four death row inmates interviewed were aware of how to appeal and access legal aid, while others were unable to pay for private lawyers.

This emphasized the poor legal aid regime where only 23 lawyers were captured offering legal services to the poor and marginalized in society.

The Ghana Prisons Service reported that only 12 death row inmates had filed appeals since 2006 – half of which were successful.

It emphasized the persistence of overcrowding and lack of access to health care, educational and recreational facilities.

Amnesty International, therefore, called on government to speed up the processes toward the abolition of the death penalty by 2019, stating proposals made by the Constitutional Review Implementation Committee to abolish the death penalty continued to be stalled as a result of delays in the constitutional review process.

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