Ghana launches National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights

Ghana has launched the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP-BHR) in Accra, a step towards ensuring that the state protects human rights, businesses respect these rights and ensure access to effective remedy when violations occur.

It also aims to promote human rights compliance and accountability by business actors, while ensuring the respect of the vulnerable and marginalised individual groups in business operations.

The launch makes Ghana the fifth country in Africa after Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Liberia, to have her Action Plan completed for implementation.

The 101 paged document, both in hard and soft copies, had also been converted into braille to ensure inclusivity.

Additionally, the NAP-BHR official website was also out- doored to enhance access.

Dr Sylvia Adusu, a Chief State Attorney, performed the launch on behalf of Dr Dominic Ayine, Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

Dr Ayine in a speech read on his behalf, said it was imperative that Ghana joined the league of countries in Africa to have developed a NAP-BHR after the first African Business and Human Rights forum was held in the country in 2022.

Thereafter, the lenses of various international bodies had been on Ghana as to when she would complete work on the NAP-BHR and adopt same.

At the fourth African Business and Human Rights forum, which would take place in Zambia and Geneva, Ghana would be counted as one the countries that has a “progressive NAP,” Dr Ayine said.

He said the state was committed to business and human rights and same has been captured in the 1992 Constitution.

“The Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice will play its role in ensuring that the NAP-BHR is adopted and the objectives stated therein are achieved.”

Dr Ayine commended all the partners who supported the NAP-BHR project and appealed to them to assist with its implementation.

Dr Joseph Whittal, Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the document, though a significant milestone, was only a step towards ensuring that the state protected human rights, businesses respected human rights and ensured access to effective remedy when violations occur.

CHRAJ, he said, had been given the mandate under the NAP to coordinate and monitor compliance across the country.

“I wish to use this medium to call on all our partners, both local and international, to support the Commission in setting up a fully equipped and functional NAP Implementation Secretariat,” Dr Whittal said.

“We are committed to the implementation of the NAP and the Commission will take all the necessary steps to support government in ensuring that all recommendations contained in the NAP are achieved,” he said.

Mr Mohammed-Anwar Sadat Adam, Country Director of Oxfam, said the launch was a bold commitment to the future where economic development aligned with respect for human dignity social justice and environmental sustainability.

The NAP had come at a critical time in Ghana’s development journey, as businesses accounted for two-thirds of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he noted.

Mr Adam said with the advent of various government flagship programmes and initiatives, and growing integration into a regional trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area, all must ensure that business growth did not come under the cost of human rights violation.

“Stakes are already high in the extractive industries and the country’s past and present experiences with gold bauxite, oil and gas, and now lithium and other mineral revealed a stack reality,” he said.

“While these extractives brought economic promise, they also expose communities, especially women, children, youth and marginalised to issues of land grabs, environmental degradation, displacement and poor labour conditions as well as abuses of civil and political rights.”

“We cannot afford to repeat these mistakes. The global means for critical minerals for energy transmission and green technology must not override the rights of communities or the duty of businesses or the state to protect and respect human rights.”

The Ghana National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (2025-2029), which was developed by the CHRAJ, the Office Attorney General and Ministry of Justice and its partners, seeks among others to enhance access to effective remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuses and violations.

Source: GNA

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