UN calls for concerted efforts to prevent gender-based violence in Ghana
The United Nations (UN) has called for concerted efforts to ensure that protection systems are well designed to prevent gender-based violence in Ghana.
“We encourage government to ensure that the protection systems are well designed to prevent gender-based violence and include legal provisions to meet the Ghanaian context of culture”, a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday said.
The statement said UN was committed to a continuous partnership with government to develop, adopt and fully implement laws and appropriate policies and educational programmes to eradicate harmful traditional and customary practices.
Female genital mutilations, child and forced marriage are some of the traditional practices in Ghana that violate the human rights of women and girls.
“As we commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD), let us look back on a year of shocking crimes of violence against women and girls at both global and national levels and ask ourselves how to usher in a better future”, the statement said.
According to the UN globally, one young woman was gang-raped to death, another committed suicide out of a sense of shame that should have been attached to the perpetrators.
It said statistics revealed that Ghana had one of the highest rate of violence against children in the world, adding “about 25 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 reports that their first sexual intercourse was forced and against their will and happened when they were less than 15 years of age”.
The UN said those offences were everyday occurrences and yet many more go unreported.
It said there was a statistical likelihood that many women cherished in families and communities had suffered some violence in their lifetime while even more had comforted a sister, an aunt or friend, sharing their grief and anger following an attack.
The statement said while congratulating the Government of Ghana for re-aligning the women’s Ministry to reflect the importance of social development, adequate protection systems should be well designed to stop gender-based violence, saying “this year on IWD, we are converting our outrage into action”.
The UN system is advancing ‘Unite to End Violence Against Women’, a campaign based on the simple but powerful premise that all women and girls have a fundamental human right to live free of violence.
The statement therefore called on all and sundry to come together to keep women and girls safe and free from violence or the threat of violence adding “this is our chance to have a positive impact on the lives of millions; we cannot afford to miss this opportunity”.
Source: GNA