Accra, April 9, - A political
pressure group OccupyGhana has lashed out at Government for rushing the
Ghana-US Military Agreement co-operation to Parliament for ratification
considering the intensity of debate it had generated.
It said the speed to ratify the
agreement on the last day of sitting at a time when the vast majority of
Ghanaians were realising probably for the first time that that agreement
existed was not right.
This is contained in a statement
issued by OccupyGhana on Monday, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.
‘‘Ghanaians deserved more time to
debate and assimilate its terms, which would have better informed our support
of or opposition to it. The night time and acrimonious ratification proceedings
was unfortunate,’’ the statement stated.
It expressed disappointment over
Parliament’s failure to exercise the same level of urgency to pass the Right to
Information Bill into law, but rather rushed in ratifying the Defence Agreement
co-operation.
It said agreement of that nature
with utmost public interest, which required parliamentary ratification should
not be assumed to be confidential, but must be made available to the public.
The statement said the agreement
although ratified by Parliament, would not immediately come into force, adding
that, Article 19 of the Agreement required that, it would only come into force
when the parties to it have exchanged the required diplomatic ‘notes.’
However, it said where
confidentiality is genuinely required, such documents are supposed to be given
the requisite status under the State Secrets Act, 1962 (Act 101), and more so,
the security classification of such agreements is specifically agreed upon in
negotiations so that the state-parties to them would have a uniform and
reciprocal treatment of such documents in their respective jurisdictions.
It indicated that the portions of
the Ghana-US Military Agreement cooperation that confer diplomatic status,
privileges and immunities on the US Military and its agents would require a
Legislative Instrument prepared by the President and sent to Parliament for
passage before it could be enforced.
‘‘Ghana passed the Diplomatic
Immunities Act, 1962 (ACT 148), according to section one of the Act, to give
“the force of law” to the receiving state obligations under (“Articles 22, 23,
24, and 27 to 40 of the Vienna Convention (which regulate the immunities and
privileges, including exemption from taxation, freedom of communication,
inviolability of premises and immunity from civil and criminal jurisdiction, to
be conferred upon diplomatic agents).
‘‘These privileges and immunities
apply automatically to “diplomatic agents” (which would include military
attaches) and not to any other persons or organisations, including members of
visiting military forces, who are ordinarily covered by the Visiting Forces
Act, 1962 (Act 117),’’ the statement explained.
It said for all such other
persons or organisations, section two of the Diplomatic Immunities Act demands
that “the President may, by legislative instrument, make Regulations extending
any or all of the immunities and privileges conferred on diplomatic agents by
virtue of this Act to prescribed organisations and prescribed representatives
and officials, subject to such conditions and limitations as may be prescribed.
It noted that, that provision
empowers the President to extend the status, privileges and immunities to
persons other than diplomats properly so-called.
However, once the President
elects to exercise this power, he is bound to act by or under a Legislative
Instrument, which must be placed before and passed by Parliament under Article
11 of the Constitution.
The statement, however,
appreciated the fact that, the agreement was initially sent to Parliament,
noting that, it was the third time in the history of the Fourth Republic that
such an agreement has been sent for parliamentary ratification.
GNA
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