Before leaving Kumasi, myself, Laura and Ashley decided to get some expert opinions on film for our documentary projects. We spoke to Dr. Charlotte Abeka, former United Nations (UN) chairperson and human rights expert who was scheduled to speak on Know Your Rights last week about the topic of women’s rights. This is fitting, as she was the chairperson for the UN’s Committee on Women. I expected to jump straight in to the questions I had for her about women’s participation in governance here in Ghana, but instead, we began to about an article she contributed to “The Circle of Empowerment”, a recent book published by a New York feminist publishing company, and her work with the UN in Liberia that inspired it.
What followed was the success story of one Ghanaian women who was able to spur on the fight for the human rights of an entire country. It started in June 2002 during the last days of Castilla’s leadership in Liberia. At this time, the human rights abuses were so severe that a human rights expert monitor had to be appointed under the confidential procedure due to dangers associated with the position. Though Dr. Abeka was still the chairperson for the Committee on Women, and up to this point, no one had ever been appointed to two positions simultaneously, Dr. Abeka was offered the role. She accepted after an allowed 48 hours to deliberate whether the task was worth the risk to her life.
She spent the next few years in Liberia, travelling around the country by armoured car, reporting on the status of human rights. Her confidential reports to the UN Human Rights Council (now the Human Rights Commission) detailed human rights atrocities, impelling the UN to send over an investigative team.
However, the investigative mission concluded after only five hours in Liberia where only Jack Cline, the UN special envoy to Liberia, and Castilla himself were interviewed. The team left the country without the slightest effort to engage with everyday Liberians and even lodged for the night in Accra, Ghana. After such a brief mission, the team delivered an exceptionally rosy report to the UN that strongly contradicted Dr. Abeka’s findings.
Thankfully, Mary Robinson, then the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, would not accept their report and called an urgent meeting of the Human Rights Council at which Dr. Abeka presented her confidential report. According to Dr. Abeka, France, Russia, the United States, and China were outraged that the UN would carry-out such a defunct mission. Subsequently, Dr. Abeka’s report was made public and used as the official account of the situation in Liberia. The outcome of these events was the Accra negotiation, leading to Castilla’s arrest and placing Ghana at the forefront of the global fight for universal human rights. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was then signed on August 15th, 2005. With her report and position no longer under confidentiality, Dr. Abeka continued to monitor the events in Liberia until 2008.
I am not sharing Dr. Abeka’s story with you because it is in any way miraculous or beyond belief. On the contrary, I share her story as an example of one Ghanaian woman whose actions contributed to the protection of human rights for many. It became clear throughout my talk with Dr. Abeka that the key to getting more women into decision-making bodies, improving women’s health and generally improving women’s livelihoods, a cornerstone of any county’s development, is empowering women through education. This sounds simple enough, but many Ghanaians still believe that it is more important for their daughter to get married and have children than to complete their education. It is time that Ghanaian girls and women look to those like Dr. Abeka and realize that they, too, have the potential to impact not only Ghana, but the world.