Jehovah’s Witnesses and Ghana’s Constitution: Barker-Vormawor probes origins of Article 30

Legal scholar Oliver Barker-Vormawor has questioned whether the historical controversy surrounding Jehovah’s Witnesses and blood transfusions influenced the wording of Ghana’s constitutional protection for sick persons.

In a post on X formally Twitter , Mr Barker-Vormawor said the recent change in the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ position on blood transfusions prompted him to revisit Article 30 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which protects the rights of persons unable to give consent to medical treatment.

According to Mr Barker-Vormawor, the development prompted him to revisit Article 30 of Ghana’s Constitution, which deals specifically with the rights of sick persons.

“Instead of a right to health, Ghana’s constitution has a right of the sick,” he noted, arguing that the provision is particularly focused on consent to medical care.

Article 30 states: “A person who by reason of sickness or any other cause is unable to give his consent shall not be deprived by any other person of medical treatment, education or any other social or economic benefit by reason only of religious or other beliefs.”

Mr Barker-Vormawor said the wording raises the question of why protection against being denied medical treatment because of religious beliefs was considered important enough to be entrenched in the Constitution.

He linked the question to the history of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ghana, recalling that on June 14, 1989, the PNDC announced a ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.

The ban, he said, remained in place until the adoption of the 1992 Constitution, after which it was dissolved.

However, Mr Barker-Vormawor cautioned that the explanation could not be that simple because the language now contained in Article 30 predates the 1992 Constitution.

According to him, the provision first appeared as part of a freedom of conscience provision in Ghana’s 1969 Constitution.

He further noted that the Commission of Experts responsible for preparing constitutional proposals in 1968 did not include the provision in its draft constitution.

“It seems it was added by the Constituent Assembly,” he said.

Mr Barker-Vormawor said he has been trying to locate the proceedings of the 1968 Constituent Assembly to establish why the provision was introduced.

“Why? I don’t know concretely. But I have been trying to find proceedings of that 1968 Constituent Assembly for a long time now,” he stated.

He further argued that the wording appears distinctive to Ghana’s constitutional history.

“One thing is certain, the language in constitution has no prior equivalence in any constitution in the world or any international treaty. It is completely Ghanaian,” he said.

He stressed that his research remains ongoing.

“The research continues and my paper is still developing,” Mr Barker-Vormawor added.

**READ ALSO: **Each Jehovah’s Witness member now decides whether to accept or donate main blood components