[ 2016-11-11 ]

No night duties for pregnant women - CHRAJ
Mrs. Mercy Larbi, Ashanti Regional Director of the
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative
Justice (CHRAJ) has entreated pregnant women not
to go on night duties because it is against their
rights.

According to the CHRAJ boss, pregnant women must
be bold enough to ensure strict compliance of the
law passed by the Parliament of the Republic of
Ghana, by not going to work at night.

Speaking at the launch of the 20th anniversary of
Defence For Children International (DCI) Ghana,
sponsored by the government of The Netherlands,
under the theme: “Protecting the rights of boys
and girls”, Mrs. Larbi commended DCI Ghana for
the close relationship in fighting or addressing
issues concerning early marriage of children,
sexual abuse and child labour.

She lamented over the recent increases in child
abuse, and revealed that another challenge facing
them is getting accommodation for the children,
who they normally come to their rescue from early
marriage and the worst form of child labour, and
tasked the government and other stakeholders to
always come to their assistance to enable them
accommodate them.

Dr. George Oppong, Executive Director of DCI
Ghana, explained that through diligence,
DCI-Ghana, together with ten other NGOs, submitted
a report to complement the government report on
the state of rights of Ghanaian children to the UN
committee.

According to him, recommendations by the NGOs in
their report collaborated concluding observations
on the Ghana report by a UN Committee in 1997.

Dr. Oppong noted that in order to have a good
front to cooperate with the government in the
follow-up actions on the concluding observations
for effective promotion and protection of
children’s rights in Ghana, the 11 CSOs,
including DCI-Ghana, formed the Ghana NGO
Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC) in
1996, soon after the submission of the NGO
complementary report.

He said DCI-Ghana became the convenor of the
Issues Sub-committee of the coalition leading in
the advocacy for child rights issues in the
country.

Dr. Oppong, stated that DCI-Ghana’s activities
evolve around the concept of Socio-Legal Defence
Centre (SLDC) operated by the organisation, which
centre provides information and training in child
rights, as well as socio-legal protective services
for child victims of abuse.

He made mention of the thematic areas of
operations, which include Juvenile Justice,
Children Protection, Sexual and Gender Based
Violence and other forms of child abuse, Worst
forms of Child Labour and Child Trafficking.

He disclosed that the Girl Power project, which
was launched five years ago, sought to empower
girls and young women, as the government partners
and the CSOs collaborated and worked hard to
achieve the targets of the project, which, he
said, was externally evaluated and shown to have
been successful.

He said some of the key achievements are the Child
Protection Network of Government Partners and
CSOs, which have now been adopted by the
Department of Children as the Child Protection
Committee and Referral Protocol among the key
partners in child protection.

The platforms, he said, provide useful avenues for
advocacy and case management on child protection
issues in the region.

He stated that a community-based Child Protection
Team, referred to as the Local Advisory Committee
for its child friendliness and the usefulness of
these community-based child protection structures,
lies in their linkage with the formal systems to
ensure effective and sustainable child protection
at the community and district levels.

DSP Susana Dery, Deputy Regional Director of
DOVSU, commended DCI-Ghana, especially, Ms Deborah
Asamoah Antwi, Project Coordinator, for a
close-working relationship with DOVSU, especially
when their support is needed in doing research and
tracing, or investigating a victim concerning
early forced marriage or child labour in rescuing
a victim.

Mrs. Elizabeth Agyemang, MP for Oforikrom
constituency, said the nation has failed when it
comes to children’s education, saying “there
are laws, but we don’t enforce them.”

Source - Ghanaian Chronicle

... go Back