| dc.description.abstract | Ghana s attainment of political independence from British rule on 6th March, 1957, has experienced four successful military coups d état and numerous attempted coups. All these events occasioned extensive human rights violations and abuses. The military regimes (and occasionally civilian regimes) provided a platform for heinous and sustained violations of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of many citizens and foreigners resident in Ghana. The security agencies, especially, the police and the military were mainly responsible for these violations. However, most of these violations and abuses of human rights had not been investigated, officially acknowledged and redressed. As a result, considerable pain, anguish, bitterness and divisions existed in the Ghanaian society.
At the heart of this thesis are two fundamental questions: (1) How do we effectively seek and promote national reconciliation, devoid of trials, in a country like Ghana whose past is characterized by politically motivated violent denial of constitutional rule, resulting in gross human rights abuses and violations? (2) What can be done to avoid a relapse into any and all of its retrogressive past?
This study argues that, given the troubled past in Ghana s history, the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) was essentially imperative even after a long democratic dispensation, during which period it all seems over and forgotten but not forgiven. The NRC has played a pivotal role by laying the foundation necessary for reconciling the nation.It also provides a holistic way of re-instituting the rule of law and reforming institutions to prevent any future relapse into rights violations and abuses. Although imperfect and subject to criticisms, the work of the Ghanaian NRC broaches an important stage in Ghana s process of attempting to understand its past and to make possible reconciliation for the purposes of healing wounds, consolidating its democracy and paving the way for socio-economic development. | nor |