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Participation of “Walled” Children Begins When Adults Listen—The Right to Participation of Children in Conflict with the Law in India
Full text linkThis paper presents the art series “Walled”, in which I depict my reflections on the experiences of children in conflict with the law in state-run facilities—how and why they might feel walled. The walls in the six paintings symbolize barriers to children’s participation. They are dark and seemingly insurmountable, yet make way for windows and light that represent children’s agency. In doing so, I draw on my experience of working with children in conflict with the law as a practitioner in India, my artistic construction of them feeling “walled” and my qualitative research on their right to participation.
To situate my work experience and reflections in theory and academic literature, I conducted research to identify challenges to participation rights that these children face. The key finding from my research is that children are viewed by adult practitioners as future becomings, hence, incapable and incompetent to participate. However, when adult practitioners listen to children, their knowledge and practice is informed by children’s views and perspectives. Listened-to children feel empowered and more able to participate. Thus, the onus is on adult practitioners to create safe spaces for children to share and contribute to decision making.
Keywords: children in conflict with the law; right to participation; Article 12 UNCRC; juvenile justice; India
The Conflicting Categorization of Kings and Chiefs in Ghana: The Status of the Asantehene
Full text linkThis article aims to explore the historical development and contemporary role of the chieftaincy institution in Ghana, highlighting its enduring significance and adaptability. The institution of chieftaincy has been with the people of Ghana for centuries. Chiefs, now known as traditional rulers, are distinct from political rulers. The laws of Ghana require chiefs to maintain neutrality by forbidding their engagement in active politics. Chiefs are royals who have been validly nominated, elected, or selected by their respective kingmakers to be enstooled or enskinned according to the relevant customary law and usage. When Europeans came to Africa to trade, chiefs governed independent states, each with its own laws, courts, police, and military. The chieftaincy institution is organized hierarchically, ranging from the lowest rank to the apex, and among the Asantes, the Asantehene is the apex. Before 1901, when the British colonized the Asantes, the Asantehene served as the political, executive, and legislative head of the people of the Asante Kingdom.
The Asante Kingdom covers the Ashanti Region, Ahafo Region, parts of the Bono and Bono East Regions, and a paramountcy each in Ghana’s Eastern and Oti Regions. The traditional capital of the Asante Kingdom, Kumasi, was initially at Kwaman. In the 1670s, Chief Osei Tutu from the Oyoko Abohyen Dynasty became the chief of Kwaman after succeeding his late uncle Nana Obiri Yeboah, who reigned from 1640 to 1680 and united all the Asante chiefdoms, which were independent and had their political autonomy. The occupants of the Golden Stool are designated as kings and have held the title to this day. Although the British succeeded in changing the name of some kings to paramount chiefs, they failed to change the name of the royals responsible for the nomination, election or selection of a person to be enstooled or installed as an Asantehene, paramount chief or chief, who are still called the kingmakers.
Keywords: Asante Kingdom; Asantehene; enstooled; fetish-priest; Gold Coast; golden stool; kingmakers; Oyoko clan; paramount chief; traditional ruler
Human Rights for Justice
Full text linkThe persons who occupy public office—including those created by the Constitution of Ghana 1992 and any other enactments—and private organizations and institutions that perform public functions or receive public resources are accountable to the citizenry, particularly those whose taxes are used to set up public offices and pay their salaries either in whole or in part, or to provide or support private bodies to perform public functions. The term “public institutions” has a broader meaning within the context of access and the right to information than its ordinary meaning.
The technical meaning of “public institutions” within the context of the right to information covers institutions created by the Constitution, any other enactments and private organizations or institutions that perform public functions or receive public resources. The author uses “public institutions” in its technical sense in this article to avoid repetition of private institutions or organizations that provide public services or receive public resources.
In most cases, public institutions fail to observe the culture of accountability and transparency and decide on the types of information to disclose and those not to be disclosed, to render the citizenry impotent to hold them accountable. The persons who occupy offices in public institutions hold those offices in trust for the citizenry, and, as trustees and fiduciaries they are required to be accountable, transparent, prudent, faithful, honest and not to commingle their personal properties with the properties that they hold in trust for their citizenry.
Discretion was hitherto exercised by public institutions as to the information which may be disclosed to the public or not did not have statutory backing, as a result of which some of them have acted capriciously. In order to make the officers of public institutions accountable and transparent, most states have enacted Right to Information Acts to give statutory backing to persons who may seek information from occupiers of public institutions to ensure that they discharge their mandates as trustees and are accountable to the nationals of their respective countries.
Furthermore, the enactments on right to information are intended to give a clear exemption to information that cannot be disclosed with the sole aim of protecting the public interest in democratic societies in accordance with the Oath of Secrecy taken by public officers and which prevents them from revealing matters that shall be brought under their consideration or knowledge through the discharge of their official duties.
This article discusses the international law position of the right to information, taking into account the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1965, the European Convention on Human Rights 1950, the American Convention on Human Rights 1969 and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981; and further discusses the Right to Information Act 2019 (Act 989) in Ghana and its effectiveness in promoting the culture of accountability, transparency and faithfulness within the public space; and, furthermore, assesses its impact on democracy and the justification for some of the exemptions provided by law to protect public interest in democratic countries.
The right to freedom of expression includes the freedom to seek, receive, hold opinions and impart information and ideas without public interference, except for restrictions imposed by the state which have been enacted into law and are necessary. The laws that are necessary in a democratic society to restrict freedom of expression must take into account the interests of national security or public order, territorial integrity or public safety, the protection of health or morals, the respect of the rights or reputation of others, the prevention of crime or disorder, and the disclosure of information received in confidence, and for the maintenance of the authority and impartiality of the courts.1
There will also be a brief discussion on freedom of information and access to information concerning the environment held by public officers and private institutions and organizations that provide public functions.
Keywords: freedom of expression; international law; freedom of information; journalism; Ghana
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Methodological and Ethical Reflections
Full text linkIn this article, we offer methodological and ethical reflections from our research project, “The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Visions for Change”. The project was conducted from January to July 2021, largely under Covid lockdown conditions. Our reflections take the form of creative writing, spoken-word poetry, images and reflective writing. Particularly, we highlight the ongoing, enmeshed and entangled nature of researcher and researched and how this relates to extractive practices, ethical care and navigations of systemic racism in children’s rights research with children of colour. We do so by positioning ourselves and our personal narratives, at times, as axles within this piece of work using Unarchigal (உணர்ச்சிகள்)—Modalities of Resistance, which is an embodiment resistance approach created within postcolonial radical feminist autoethnography. We suggest that researchers might consider similar reflexivity around these issues in their own children’s rights research.
A note for readers: in keeping with the enmeshed nature of researcher and researched, particularly as two researchers are women of colour, we use swearing in one section via spoken-word poetry. Swearing is framed as a coping mechanism and response to narratives witnessed in the project, alongside the navigation of systemic racism and the colonial edifice that children and young people of colour and their families are forced to navigate. There will be usage of Pavi’s mother tongue, Tamizh (Tamil), via phrases and a few sentences alongside translations, capturing these intimate reflections.
Keywords: children’s rights; anti-racism; ethics; auto-ethnography
Can Historical Jurisprudence Inform the Artificial Intelligence and Law Debate?
Full text linkThe publication of a monograph by Dr Luca Siliquini-Cinelli on the history of scientia iuris in which he argues that law is a constructed form of knowledge that differs from experience is not just an important and very learned contribution to historical jurisprudence. The book’s thesis is also making an important contribution to the debate about the impact, and probable future impact, of artificial intelligence (AI) on law, legal thought and legal reasoning. In critically reviewing the book, this essay will briefly indicate how and why Dr Siliquini-Cinelli’s book is establishing a fundamental relationship between historical jurisprudence (understood as the history of legal thought) and AI.
Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI); epistemology; legal singularity; map; model; philosophy; rule-theorist; territory