This past semester, the International Justice Mission (“IJM”) Ghana team and the Center for Global Justice (“CGJ”) partnered to address the gap between trauma-informed evidentiary procedures for child trafficking victims and the accused’s fair trial rights under the Ghanaian Constitution. The issue is that despite the research-backed need for trauma-informed procedures for child victim witnesses, there is no explicit legal evidentiary protection in Ghanaian law; there is, however, a legal right for the accused to examine witnesses (accusers). Consequently, greater problems arise when child victims of abuse are required to testify against and be examined by their abusers in their physical presence (e.g., especially when the abuser is representing themselves), resulting in re-traumatization. Our role at the CGJ has been to identify the legal principles and safeguards that support the protection of child victims while preserving the accused’s right to challenge the evidence against them effectively.
The CGJ team has been researching these principles through other common law countries’ practices, assessing trauma-informed procedures for child victim witnesses, and analyzing their compatibility with Ghana’s Article 19 protections. As the project is underway, one of the key highlights has been that trauma-informed legal practices and the criminal justice system’s primary purpose, to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused impartially, are not mutually exclusive. In other words, trauma-informed care for child victim witnesses is a key promoter of the fair administration of the justice system. The more precautionary measures and protections taken for child witnesses, the lower the risk of retraumatization and psychological barriers to recalling the events of the crime; this, in turn, promotes greater accuracy and reliability. Both the rights of the accused and protections for the accuser (e.g., child witness victims) must be considered, and existing practices address both interests. Therefore, through this project, we hope to promote the fair administration of justice by preserving the accused’s right to examine witnesses and providing sufficient evidence to advocate for the explicit incorporation of legal evidentiary protections for child victim witnesses in Ghana.
This post was written by a Center for Global Justice Intern. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.