Human Rights and the Limits of Public Interest Law: Ghana’s Reaction to a Messy World Phenomenon

Abstract

Currently international financial and development organizations are seeking to enforce the social welfare commitments made by the Ghanian government which have been consistently deferred and neglected despite constitutional guarantees. In a parallel movement public interest lawyers in Ghana are adapting the concept of rights-based approaches ("RBA") to development, using the tools and arguments of the neo-liberal Rule of Law and extending beyond them to re-envision citizenship, empower citizens, and articulate citizen demands against their government for political, social, economic, and cultural transformation. This paper traces the history of legal advocacy in Ghana, from human rights during the military period, to more traditional domestic litigation against the government after the 1992 constitution, to the new conception of public-private partnerships and citizen advocacy under RBA. The paper identifies the constraints on and opportunities for public interest lawyers who must both assist government in implementing policies to promote individual rights and encourage citizens to achieve social transformation through grassroots means.