Enforcing the Laws on Public Morality against Key Populations: The Dilemma of the Ghana Police Service

Abstract

The Ghana Police Service AIDS Control program with the support of the Ghana Country Office of UNFPA designed and implemented a program in 5 Regions and some Headquarters formations out of the total 14 establishments, focused on the epidemic of bad laws that criminalize certain populations and behaviours and thereby stand in the way of progress in addressing HIV. Followed by sensitization programs to address issues that came out from the focus group discussions. The program targeted 611 police personnel on three levels (Senior Police officers (SPO), Inspectorate/Middle level and the operational/other ranks). The ability of respondents to understand the laws and interpret them ranged for one being SPOs (77%) to working at Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit; (DOVVSU) (70%) to operational men (38%) respectively. When respondents were asked how does the Criminal Offences Act describes the offences of Solicitation or unnatural carnal knowledge, participants could mostly not define or state the key ingredients of the law as stated in the Criminal Offences Act. (Ref. Sect. 104 & Sect 273-276 of the Criminal Offences Act 29/1960.) The response levels were SPO (62%) DOVVSU (70%) with Other Ranks being 59% respectively. The third topic of discussion was; what constitutes the causation of sexual offence/offences against public morals. Appropriateness of responses ranged from DOVVSU (63%) to SPOs (59%) and Other Ranks (41%). It was evident that a higher level of training correlates strongly to the proper interpretation and understanding of the application of the laws. What was obvious to the participants after the interactions was that the application of the law is often times predicated on prejudice, fear, myth and not science or evidence. This further underscores the need for sensitisation training and more of such forums to expose all wrongful practises and educate personnel on appropriate measures.