The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has extended funding support to Crime Check Foundation (CCF) in a collective quest to end laws that criminalize the status of individuals.

These laws criminalize the status of individuals as being poor, homeless, as opposed to specific wrongful acts.

The partnership is dubbed: 'Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws and Advocacy (DVLA) project.

OSIWA, established in 2000, is a grant-making and advocacy organization focused on equality, justice, democratic governance, human rights, and knowledge generation.

The Initiative is part of the global network of Open Society Foundations spread across 37 countries around the world.

Mr Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, the Executive Director of CCF, said the CCF-OSIWA DVLA project sought to create an enabling environment for vagrants to know, demand, and exercise their rights and responsibilities in Ghana.

He explained that vagrants were poor persons, who do not have a fixed abode, a regular source of income, nor practice a trade or profession.

He said about 22 African countries penalised a vagrant, and equip the police with powers to enforce vagrancy laws.

"Vagrants are regularly subjected to unreasonable punishments, including fines and imprisonment beyond their strength for carrying out activities such as street hawking to earn a living, which leads to unlawful incarceration of such persons," he said.

He stressed that the CCF-OSIWA partnership was consistent with an Advisory Opinion, on December 4, 2020, by the African Court on Human Rights and People's Rights, that Vagrancy laws were incompatible with African human rights instruments that Ghana is a signatory to.

Mr Kwarteng said though the activities of vagrants breach local government laws, they were compelled to engage in such activities because relevant authorities had not created a thriving environment for them.

"They are not supposed to sell on the streets, but somehow, the government has created the condition for them to be there," he added.

He said the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) responsible for enforcing the laws and providing social amenities had not lived up to their expectation.

He said they had deviated from their mission statements, but in the end, punish these vagrants.
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The Executive Director said vulnerable groups would be sensitized to know their rights to hold authorities accountable under the project, while at the same time, made to be law-abiding.

"Thousands of vagrants, including their leadership and government officials, will be sensitized through community and media engagements across 12 targeted MMDAs within Greater Accra, Central, and the Ashanti Regions," he said.

Mr Kwarteng said mobile phones would be provided to facilitate monitoring and to receive complaints on vagrancy laws to inform engagements and appropriate actions.

He said mapping of vagrant locations had begun in the target districts, where meetings were held with heads of MMDAs and some vagrants ahead of the launch of the project on May 28, 2021.