Book on rights of children in Ghana launched

An educational book titled: “Children’s Rights in Ghana: Reality or Rhetoric?, aimed to raise awareness of the public on children’s rights in the country, has been launched in Accra on Wednesday.

The 321 pages book is the first book to examine Ghana’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its impact on the rights and condition of children in the country.

In 1990, Ghana became the first country to rectify the UN Convention.

The book has examined the barriers to realizing children’s rights in Ghana and obstacles in seeking to overcome them and it would help in bridging an important gap in literature about Ghana.

The book assembled contributions from about 15 eminent writers and practitioners in the fields of law, human rights, anthropology, social work, among others.

It was edited by Robert Kwame Ame,an Assistant Professor of Human Rights and Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University, DeBrenna LaFa Agbenyiga, an Assistant Dean at the College of Social Science, Michigan State University, and Nana Araba Apt, Dean at Ashesi University.

The book, which is focused on a wide range of rights issues, including children’s identity, violence against children and women, child exploitation and children in conflict with the law, was launched on behalf of Chief Justice Theodora Georgina Wood by Justice Rose Owusu.

Justice Owusu commended the editors of the book and called for more of such books to be published to serve as a mouth piece in creating awareness of children’s rights in the country.

Nana Araba Apt appealed to Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of reading books written by Ghanaians, to encourage young people to develop the habit of writing and publishing their own book to promote Ghana’s rich literature globally.

Source: GNA