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In his take on the fasting brouhaha that the country is wrapped up in, Member of Parliament (MP) for Medina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu (ESQ), listed a number of international laws that such policies and or restrictions as occurred at Wesley Girls High School violate.
They include: Article 8 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, 1981 (The Banjul Charter); Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Article 1 (1) of the 1981 Declaration of the General Assembly and The Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
All the laws above mentioned have one thing in common—Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Francis-Xavier Sosu whose specialization is in Human Rights law noted that “any laws and practices that do not allow people to freely practice their religion would amount to a breach of the Constitution.”
In the specific case of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, Article 11 connotes that “Sources of laws in Ghana begins with the Constitution. It is our Constitution that gives validity to laws and practices particular of institutions in the public space. No school can legislate to discriminate against people on grounds of religion.
“That is why what happened in Achimota SHS was wrong and what just happed as Wesley Girls SHS was equally wrong. This is further supported by Article 1(2) of the Constitution which provides that any law which is contrary to the constitution cannot stand. Such a law will be null and void,” he added.
Meanwhile, at the 2021 Eid-ul-Fitr celebration, President Akufo-Addo noted that stakeholders including the Ministry of Education, and the Wesley Girls High School are deliberating on possible ways to address the problem.
He said: “The authorities, that is the Ministry of Education led by the new Minister, Hon. Yaw Adutwum, Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, leaders of the Christian and Muslim communities and the leadership of the school [Wesley Girls High School] are engaged in solemn discussion about the way forward and I am very hopeful that a satisfactory solution would be found for one and all.”
