The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is set to engage the Mahama government over the passage of the Anti-Witchcraft Bill.
The Anti-Witchcraft Bill, officially known as the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by Ghana’s Parliament. The legislation seeks to modify the Criminal Offences Act, of 1960 (Acts 29) to outlaw the practice of witch doctoring or witch finding. It also forbids the act of declaring, accusing, naming, or labelling another individual as a witch.
This Private Member’s Bill was put forward by Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, and other NDC MPs. The bill, which Parliament ratified on July 28, 2023, is viewed as a vital measure in tackling the perils associated with witch accusations.
Unfortunately, the bill was not assented to former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The former president had expressed concerns about potential financial impacts on the country’s consolidated fund, leading to his decision not to sign the bill.
In an interview on the Channel One Newsroom on Sunday, Lambert Luguniah, National Representative of CHRAJ, expressed optimism about the new government’s favourable disposition towards the bill.
“Our expectation is to engage the new government…My boss, the commissioner, did intimate a few weeks ago that he had had a preliminary engagement with some of the key officers in the government and their disposition is very favourable to the passage of the bill,” Luguniah stated.
He further said that CHRAJ plans to formally engage the government once it is fully constituted to ensure the bill is repackaged and presented in the name of the president, rather than as a private member’s bill. This approach aims to avoid any obstacles that hindered the previous attempt to pass the bill.
“So we will formally engage them when the government is fully constituted to make sure that the bill is repackaged even in the name of the president instead of its becoming a private member’s bill such that it can be passed without any incumbrances like the first one,” Luguniah added.