Notes on Ghana and International Child Abduction
Jeremy D. Morley
1. Ghana has not signed the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, has failed to establish any bilateral procedure to resolve abduction cases between Ghana and the United States and has failed to establish any other procedures to resolve international child abduction cases.
2. The U.S. State Department previously reported that "Many countries are not party to the Convention. Those with the highest incidence of reported child abductions from the United States include: China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates."
3. There is no statute in Ghana under which a custody order issued by a foreign country's courts can be registered or enforced in Ghana. Nor are foreign custody orders enforceable under Ghanaian common law, though they may be considered as part of a plenary custody case.
4. The U.S. State Department's 2013 Human Rights Report for Ghana reports that "corruption in all branches of government" in Ghana is a serious human rights problem, and that, although Ghana's constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, the judiciary was inefficient and subject to influence and corruption. Although Ghanaian law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices.
5. There appear to be no cases of extradition having ever been granted from Ghana for international child abduction.