Ghana’s law on CEDAW inadequate – says UN Committee on CEDAW

Ghana has been asked to adopt appropriate legislation for the implementation of each of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

According to the UN Committee on CEDAW, Ghana’s existing legislative framework is inadequate to ensure compliance with all the provisions of the Convention.

The country is also to ensure that the provisions of CEDAW and related domestic legislations are made an integral part of legal education and the training of judicial officers, including judges, lawyers and prosecutors.

These among others formed part of recommendations made by the UN Committee on CEDAW when Ghana submitted a combined report on her implementation of CEDAW to the committee in August 2006 in New York, USA.

Once the report is examined, the committee makes observations, recommendations and suggestion to the countries. CEDAW which has 16 provisions was agreed on by countries worldwide to completely put an end to sexual exclusions or distinction which create inequality between men and women.

CEDAW is one of several international treaties and agreements signed and ratified by Ghana to promote gender equality and for the advancement of women in Ghana.

When Ghana ratified the CEDAW in 1981 she was required to submit reports in four-year intervals.
However, since it submitted its 1st and 2nd periodic reports in 1992, Ghana never submitted any report until 2005 when it submitted a combined 3rd, 4th and 5th periodic report that was formerly considered by the UN Committee on CEDAW in August 2006.

For the first time, NGOs also submitted a shadow report on the national report to the UN Committee.

The committee expressed concern that the definition of discrimination against women contained in article 17 (2) of Ghana’s constitution is not in conformity with the definition contained in article 1 of the Convention, which encompasses the prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination.

Speaking at a dissemination workshop on the outcome of Ghana’s report to the 36th session of CEDAW, the National Programme Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF-Ghana), Mrs. Bernice Sam revealed that the committee requests Ghana to remove impediment women face in accessing justice.

She said the committee advised Ghana to take measures in collaboration with the commission on Human RightS and Administration Justice (CHRAJ) to enhance women’s awareness of their right and legal literacy to claim their rights.

“The committee is concerned about the insufficient financial and human resource of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and of the women’s desks in the government ministries department and agencies which have made existing institutional mechanisms unable to coordinate the government’s work to promote gender equality,” she said.

In Ghana the persistence of deep-rooted cultural norms such as female genital mutilation and Trokosi constitute serious obstacles to women’s human rights.

This explains why the UN Committee on CEDAW advises Ghana to introduce delay concrete measures to modify and eliminate such practices to enable women enjoy their rights fully.

Ghana has been encouraged to put in place training measures aimed at judicial officers, the police and health-care officials in order to enhance their capacity to deal with violence against women in a gender-sensitive manner.

“The committee requests the state party to implement victim support measures such as increasing the number of shelters or comparable safe places for women victims of violence and to collect sex-disaggregated data in the incidence of violence against women.”

It describes as discriminatory article 7 (6) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 10 (7) of the Citizenship Act 2000 (Act 591) which make it more difficult for foreign spouses of Ghanaian women to acquire citizenship than it is for foreign spouses of Ghanaian men.

Currently, spouses of Ghanaian women need to prove among others that they are permanently resident for a period of time in Ghana to be able to acquire citizenship.

The UN Committee on CEDAW asked Ghana to specifically provide in her next report detailed information about measures it has taken on realizing equal opportunity for women in the labour market.

It demands that Ghana pays attention to conditions of women workers in the informal sector to ensure access to social services and social security.

WiLDAF also called on the Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children to institute periodic briefing sessions with women’s groups to discuss the status of women in Ghana and also check compliance with international treaties.