JOSEPH WEMAKOR – Human Rights Reporters Ghana (NGO)

June 14, 2023

The founder and executive director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Mr. Joseph Kobla Wemakor, has spoken out against the mistreatment of cocoa farmers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, calling it a depressing situation.

Mr. Wemakor highlighted the upsetting results of recent research by Oxfam in an interview with an American television journalist who serves as a senior presenter for the Newsmakers show on TRT World in Istanbul.

The study revealed that despite being the leading cocoa producers globally, Ghana and Ivory Coast collectively receive a mere $4.5 billion out of the industry’s massive $130 billion in revenue.

Mr. Wemakor emphasized that this act of injustice has not received the attention it deserves to instigate meaningful change.

He stated, “Sadly, this is affecting the poor farmers who sustain us. It’s disheartening… HRRG recognizes the urgency of championing this issue and ensuring that justice is served through intensified advocacy efforts.”

Mr. Wemakor also bemoaned the lack of government assistance, saying that this was a problem that needed to be addressed in order to alleviate the situation facing the cocoa farmers.

He further highlighted the detrimental impact of illegal mining on the cocoa industry, whereby cocoa farms are converted into illegal mining sites, hindering the sector’s growth.

During the show, Mr. Uwe Gneiting, a senior researcher at Oxfam Ghana, expressed optimism that the challenges faced by cocoa farmers today could be resolved if chocolate processing companies showed willingness to tackle them.

He emphasized the necessity of finding strategies to allocate more resources to farmers, including implementing higher pricing, in order to sustain the chocolate sector.

On the other hand, Mr. Elikem Kotoko, a Ghanaian activist, blamed the government for exploiting cocoa farmers.

He pointed out the lack of deliberate commitment on the government’s part to protect farmers from exploitation and called for the government to enforce strict rules aimed at safeguarding the rights of cocoa farmers against heinous exploitation by large corporations.

Watch the interview here:

Source: Alexander Bombande

June 3, 2022June 3, 2022

Wa flogging: Perpetrators should be made to face full rigours of the law-HRRG

The Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), a vibrant media advocacy cum human rights non-governmental organization has charged the Ghana Police Service to endeavour and ensure that those miscreants committed the atrocious act by flogging the two lovers in Wa are meant to face the full rigours of the law at all cost.

This follows media reports confirming severe severely flogging of two lovers by some irate youth at the forecourt of Wa Naa’s palace in Wa in the Upper West Region after their sex tape was leaked on social media.

The heart-breaking news has since received an outburst of public outcry and wide condemnation with multitudes calling justice to be served the victims and the perpetrators brought to book.

The Human Rights Reporters Ghana is the latest to add its voice to calls for the perpetrators to be dealt with according to law to serve as deterrent to others while justice is served to the victims to ensure peace prevails.

In a statement dated June 3 signed by its Executive Director, Joseph Wemakor and copied to the press, the group said, “We applaud the Ghana Police Service in their swift response in effecting some arrests and hope the perpetrators are made to face the full rigors of the law, as a testament to the fact that Ghana is governed by the rule of law where no custom, by-law or religious rule supersedes that of the state”.

Read the full statement below:

September 7, 2019September 16, 2019

HRRG CEO accepted to Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa Financial Journalism Program

The Executive Director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Joseph Kobla Wemakor has been offered a place among the forty-eight (48) selected delegates accepted for the second intake of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) Financial Journalism Program in Ghana.

Mr. Wemakor who also doubles as the Editor-In-Chief of the Ghananewsone.com in an interview averred that the opportunity is a step in the right direction towards enhancing his capacity to become a world class business and financial reporter he aspires to become in the near future.

“I believe this opportunity is a significant buildup on my previous ones; my selection among the top 18 African financial reporters who were schooled in Morocco last year by global renowned financial experts on business and financial reporting coupled with my earlier placement at the Multimedia Group’s; Joy Business News Desk as an intern towards achieving my dream of becoming the next world class business and financial in Ghana and beyond”.

Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA) Financial Journalism Program in Ghana.

The Financial Journalism Training program is a core component of the BMIA, a project of Bloomberg Philanthropist supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Ford Foundation which aims to contribute to the advancement of business and financial reporting in Africa.

Since the program was first launched in the Ghana on January 14, 2019, it has seen over 50 delegates accepted for the first intake of the training offered in partnership with the Strathmore University, University of Ghana Business School and Ghana Institute of Journalism.

For the next 6 months, the 48 selected delegates for the second intake who are practicing journalists (majority) as well as professionals from the government and non-government sector will spend 19 days in interactive sessions led by prominent faculty at local universities and will cover topics to strengthen their skills in an understanding of data analysis, capital markets, accounting and finance, public policy, economics and transforming media landscape.

Financial journalism sessions will be taught by Bloomberg News reporters. Delegates will also receive a free, six-month subscription to the Bloomberg Terminal offering access to the global data, news and analysis.

Source| Newsghana24.com