Stakeholders validate final draft document of Ghana’s affirmative action
Alhaji Limuna Mohammed–Muniru, Upper East Regional Minster, on Thursday reiterated government’s commitment to passing the Affirmative Action Bill into law.
He said the final draft of the document had been validated by stakeholders in order to ensure collective ownership of the bill when passed into law.
Alhaji Mohammed–Muniru was speaking at a public durbar organised by the Regional Inter-sectoral Gender Network (RISEGNET) and sponsored by Action Aid Ghana for 150 participants, on the theme: “Advocacy for the Passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into Law”, in Bolgatanga.
The participants were selected from RISEGNET, Action Aid Ghana, Past and Present Assembly Women Association, and others were queen mothers and heads of department.
The Minister reminded the public that women’s participation and representation in decision making was a right recognized under the Charter on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Protocol of African Charter on Human Rights, which Ghana was a signatory to.
Alhaji Mohammed –Muniru noted that respecting the right was the foundation for women’s empowerment to compact poverty, hunger and disease.
He said the President Mahama- led administration had appointed many women into key public positions, including Cabinet and Chief Executive Office.
The Chairman of RISEGNET, Mr Daud James Abang-Gos, appealed to government to take a cue from Rwanda where the authorities gave more positions to women, which led to more women Parliamentarians and political appointees than their male counterparts.
He said that ‘’since independence, no woman has ever headed the Upper Region now Upper East Region, spanning over seven successive governments, and no woman has also ever represented the region at the Council of State.
“As of now, we have 23 elected assembly women as against 353 men elected in the region. Out of a total number of 153 government appointees to the various assemblies in the region 43 are women as against 110 men appointees”.
The Programme Manager of Action AID Ghana, Mr James Kusi Boama, said marginalization of women in appointments to leadership positions, violence against women and negative cultural practices such as widowhood rites and female genital mutilation violates their fundamental human rights.
He said the Affirmative Action Bill when passed into law would help address challenges confronting women.
The participants said that women participation and representation in decision making was a right recognized under the Charter on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Protocol of African Charter on Human Rights, which Ghana was a signatory to..
They said “We wonder why it has taken the government so long to pass the Bill into law. The proposed Affirmative Action Bill final draft was validated in Koforidua on Tuesday 30thMay 2013.”
Source: GNA