From January 28 to 31, 2024, the IIJ CT PHARE team, in partnership with the African Union Counter Terrorism Centre (AUCTC), hosted the second Capacity Building Activity in Accra, Ghana. This four-day event focused on Pre-Trial Detention and the Right to a Fair Trial and follows a similar event held in October 2024 in Algiers, Algeria. The initiative brought together distinguished practitioners from Egypt and Anglophone West African countries, including The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Before and during the event, the IIJ and CT PHARE team engaged with several key stakeholders, including H.E. Mr. Ramses Joseph Cleland, Chief Director, and H.E. Jane Gasu Aheto, Director of the Legal and Treaties Bureau, both from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana. The IIJ also had the privilege of meeting Mrs. Joyce Adishetu Bawah Mogtari, Presidential Adviser and Special Aide to the President of Ghana, along with H.E. Jean Claude Galea Mallia, the High Commissioner of Malta to Ghana, and his Deputy Head of Mission, Ms. Marsim Cassar.
The goal of the activity was to strengthen engagement among criminal justice practitioners and promote peer-to-peer discussions on six crucial topics: pre-trial detention, trial without undue delay, public hearings, presumption of innocence, legal representation, and the protection of vulnerable populations. These discussions were informed by the findings from the GCTF CJ-ROL WG Survey Report on Fair Trial Rights, co-chaired by Italy and Nigeria, with support from the IIJ and the EU-funded CT PHARE facility. Throughout the programme, experts with extensive experience in human rights and counter-terrorism, including those from AUCTC, participated in the different sessions.
The Capacity Building Activity was officially inaugurated by Mr. Paul Madden, CT PHARE Project Lead; Colonel Christian Emmanuel Mouaya Pouyi, Head of the Training and Equipment Unit at AUCTC; H.E. Jane Gasu Aheto from the Ghana Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration; Ms. Ana Lixi, Head of the Governance and Security Section at the European Union Delegation to Ghana; and Mr. Gabriele Palermo, Chargé d'Affaires at the Embassy of Italy to Ghana.
Over the course of the event, participants engaged in working groups and case studies, sharing experiences regarding the gaps and challenges within their national legal frameworks for handling terrorism-related cases. The aim was to draft a set of country recommendations on pre-trial detention and fair trial rights, grounded in the principles of presumption of innocence, due process, proportionality, and human rights.
The event concluded with a closing ceremony chaired by IIJ CT PHARE Project Lead, Mr. Paul Madden, Colonel Christian Emmanuel Mouaya Pouyi from AUCTC and H.E. Jane Gasu Aheto from the Ghana Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration. In their closing remarks, all the speakers emphasised the importance of collaborative efforts in advancing human rights and counter-terrorism policies and practices in the region. They underscored the need to continue addressing these critical issues and explored opportunities for further cooperation and progress. Ghana expressed its willingness and enthusiasm to host additional capacity-building activities in the future, reaffirming its commitment to supporting such initiatives.