The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Human Rights Promotion in the Fourth Republic of Ghana

Abstract

Human rights are a justified entitlement that any person may claim because of being human       and that right to be socially guaranteed. Ensuring human rights requires that institutions are committed to their promotion and enforcement. It is against this backdrop with respect to the human rights record of Ghana especially under her Fourth Republic that this work is motivated to assess the promotion and protection of human rights under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime from 2009 to 2017. The work seeks to examine the political environment that the NDC created during its eight years of administration to ensure the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, with focus on how it strengthened constitutional human right institutions like the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Media. This work is qualitative and uses primary and secondary sources of data to gather the information. The findings of this work reveal and confirm that human rights was the premise of Ghana`s transition to democratic rule since 1993 with the promulgation of the Fourth Republican Constitution which makes provision for the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The study recommends that the promotion and protection of human rights should be a matter of a collective responsibility.