Access more funding to extend Decriminalizing Vagrancy laws-Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Gov’t

Parliament’s Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development has pledged to support the advocacy on decriminalizing vagrancy laws to protect poor and vulnerable persons from abuse.

However, the Committee suggests that the campaign needs to be deepened to get the needed impact.

The Committee, chaired by the Member of Parliament for Odotobiri Constituency, Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi said advocacy and sensitization are key to realizing the objectives of the project and recommended that it is carried out across all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

The MP said this when Crime Check Foundation (CCF), the implementing organization of the Decriminalizing vagrancy Laws and Advocacy (DVLA) project met the Committee to brief them on the project and to solicit their support.

The DVLA project seeks to create an enabling environment for vagrants (the homeless and other poor and voiceless persons) to know, claim and exercise their rights. It is funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) aimed at ending the criminalization of vagrancy or homelessness in the country.

One of its main objectives is to ensure that vagrants are not imprisoned for petty offences they commit in undertaking their activities in finding a source of livelihood.

Whiles praising CCF and OSIWA for the initiative which is aimed at reducing poverty, Mr. Gyamfi urged CCF to further engage stakeholders to ensure that there is a deepened awareness creation to get the voices of the vagrants heard.

This he said would put the stakeholders on their toes to put out actionable measures that will help in achieving the aims and objectives of the project.

“This is an area that many people would not like to spend time to look at. Looking at the details you have presented, the impact is so great on the local societies in terms of the imprisonments and the outcomes. For instance, when they (poor persons) are imprisoned for stealing, they come out more hardened. It is something laudable so we all have to come on board.”

“If it has come to the notice that education on the bye-laws is low, then the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) should be instructed to publicize the bye-laws. I was looking to see a list of all the vagrancy bye-laws. You need more funding because if you had enough funding you would have been working within all MMDAs. Because, if you have to work within all the 261 MMDAs, it would have been a nationwide project. You cannot say you are working in Ashanti Region and you target only Suame. The start is good but you need more funding to expand,” he said.

The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, Sulemana Adamu Saed who is the MP for Ahafo Ano North Constituency corroborated Honorable Gyamfi’s point saying that ‘you need more journalists to come on board as ambassadors because the advocacy is low. You need more people to trumpet it. Try to hijack some of the morning shows to get people to know that there is such a project going on. You need to deepen the advocacy and whatever is brought before parliament we will be willing to support it. Your advocacy is laudable and I encourage you to pursue it.’

The Executive Director of CCF, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng reiterated his appeal for the immediate passage of the Non-Custodial Sentencing Bill into law so that instead of putting petty offenders behind bars, they are made to undertake activities that will be beneficial to the state.

 “Crime Check Foundation has a Petty Offenders project and through that we have paid the fines of thousands of petty offenders but we can’t continue to do that in the absence of the Non-Custodial Law. There is the need for Parliament to hasten the passage of the Non-Custodial Law. It is a pity that our gutters are choked. We have programmes like ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ project and these prisoners instead of feeding them with the tax payers money, they can be on the streets working,” he said.

About OSIWA:

Established in 2000, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is a grant-making and advocacy organization focused on equality, justice, democratic governance, human rights, and knowledge generation. It is part of the global network of Open Society Foundations spread across 37 countries around the world.