Police Brutality and Violence Against Liberian Refugees and Migrants in Ghana: The Role of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice

During Liberia’s 14-year civil war, 250,000–270,000 people died while 800,000–1,000,000 persons were displaced. Perceived as the ‘spoils of war’, 80 per cent of girls and women were sexually abused—a ‘weapon of war’ used to violate human rights. Some 20,000 children were forcibly enlisted, mutilated, beaten, murdered, and enticed to commit egregious crimes against humanity. Already traumatised, roughly 126,000 fled to Ghana seeking refuge. After three decades, 12,000 Liberians remain in a protracted displacement situation at the Buduburam Refugee Settlement. Highlighting two incidences of police brutality against Liberians in Ghana, this chapter adopts an analytical legal framework and the rights-based approach to assess the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice’s mission to protect and enforce fundamental human rights and freedom to all persons in Ghana.