Don’t Remove Indemnity Clause – CDD-GHANA

The Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), a Ghanaian based think tank has disassociated itself from claims that the center is in support of the drafted recommendations made by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) that the indemnity clause in the 1992 constitution that gives immunity to coup makers should be removed.

In a press statement released on Wednesday, 30th November 2011, the center states that ‘it has taken no such position and as a matter of fact, considers any attempt to remove the transitional provisions at this time as wrongheaded’. According to the statement, even though a CDD survey on popular opinions on selected proposals for amendment of the constitution confirmed majority support for the removal of the indemnity clause, the center strongly believes that despite the presence of the transitional provisions in the constitution over the last 18 years, Ghana continues to make great strides as a democratic nation hence no need to allow this important constitutional review process to be overwhelmed by the single issue of the indemnity clauses.

Under section 34 of the transitional provisions of the 1992 Constitution of the republic of Ghana, any individual who took part in the 1966 .1972,1979 and 1989 cannot be held liable either jointly or severally for any acts or omissions during the change of governments. However various calls by a section of the public for its expunging has prompted the Constitutional Review Commission which was set up two years ago to amend the constitution to include it in their drafted recommendations which is to be handed over to President John Evans Atta Mills later this year. The drafted report which found its way into Ghanaian media has so since generated in heated debates with some media houses siting CDD as an institution that supports the removal of the clause. A claim the center debunks.

The think tank also took time in the statement to urge the media and the general public to focus attention on reforms and amendments that seek to make Ghana a better governed and prosperous country rather than exploit divisions and difference for dubious and unproductive ends. It also called on all well-meaning Ghanaians to continue to see the Constitutional Review Process to be an enterprise about the present and future, but not the past.

The Center is an independent, nonpartisan and non-profit research-based and policy-oriented think tank dedicated to the promotion of democracy, good governance and the development of a liberal political and economic environment in Ghana in particular and Africa in general.