Upholding the rights of women and children in Ghana

The impact of women in the society cannot be underestimated. They form over 52% of the country's population.

Despite gains in some areas, gender inequality, including cultural values and norms, domestic violence and a general acceptance of the superiority of man continues to limit women's ability to participate in and contribute to the growth of the economy.

Even though Ghana is party to several international conventions which require her to uphold the right of women to housing, employment, education, political participation and health care among others, women are the ones who suffer most in deplorable living conditions in slum areas and are often excluded from the planning and implementation of water supply and sanitation programmes.

Ghanaian women have played and continue to play commendable roles in the development of the country from time immemorial.

But their efforts seem not to be recognized well enough in the country's decision-making and democratization process.

Gender based violence Promoting issues concerning women and children is crucial to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs).

Analysts say particular attention should be given to combating violence against women because it often prevents them from participating actively in the development process, as violence negatively affects women's bodies, mind and spirit.

"Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. And it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace," Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, stated at a UN Global Videoconference in March in 1999 on 'A World Free of Violence against Women.

'Forms of gender-based violence in Ghana include, but are not limited to, domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, sexual harassment and female genital mutilation among others.

Some gender advocates have argued that since the success of any democratic process presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society, it is necessary that women are empowered to see themselves as equal partners in that endeavor.

Violence against women who are branded witches is reported from all regions but it is more visible in the northern parts of Ghana. In these parts, old women considered to be witches are often violently driven from their communities and homes and forced to take refuge in "witch camps".

They lose their inheritance and their livelihoods as a result and become destitute.Girls in Child LaborA World Bank paper on child labor in Ghana found that girls were more likely than boys to engage in harmful forms of labor.

Many rural families living in extreme poverty send their daughters to urban areas to live with more affluent families where they serve as domestic workers in exchange for shelter, food and sometimes a minimal income.

The report says the realization of commitments to gender equality made under the Constitution, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa remains a challenge to the Ghanaian Government and society at large.

High levels of poverty limit the government's ability to prioritize the allocation of adequate resources for universal basic education, gender parity in education and the economic and social development of marginalized regions and districts.

Political participation Various women right groups have expressed their concern about the abysmal performance of women in last year's parliamentary and presidential elections.

Indeed, the number of women who won their parliamentary seats declined by five to only twenty out of over 200 seats, a serious blow to the realization that women will play equal roles with men in decision-making.

To most women's rights advocates, what has happened is a wakeup call to all who are concerned about the progress of women in Ghana.

Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, Convenor of the Network for Women's Rights, Ghana (NETRIGHT) has stressed the need for women to rethink the guiding principles on women's development.

This can be done, she said, by demanding that national policies conform to the human rights agenda, which of course include women's rights.

Women in the media
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana guarantees freedom of speech and expression, including the right to freedom of the press and other media, the right to information and the establishment of the independent National Media Commission (NMC).

Analysts believe however that quantity has not necessarily been matched with quality.Today women constitute 41 % of working journalists.

In spite of women's immense contribution to the development of democracy via the media, the media in Ghana continue to marginalize women's concerns and issues. There are numerous newspapers, with new ones emerging each passing day.

While most do political stories to sell, only few like the Public Agenda continue to stick to advocacy and social justice values - it look at the impact national policies make on the marginalized or the less privileged in society. Political stories dominate the content of the Ghanaian media.

Most practitioners hold the view that only political stories sell or make the headlines. Research shows that a liberalized media environment with its commercial pressures often produces news and programmes that do not empower women or promote gender equity.

Women are often portrayed in the media by their sexuality. Certain images in the media depict that female sexuality is related to exchanging sex for money. In advertising, women's bodies are used to sell products more often than men.

Women seen most often in the media are fashion models, singers and actresses. Females get the some space in the media when they fall victim to abuses such as rape, incest and assault.

The potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women.

The Women's Manifesto for Ghana

It is a political document that identifies key national issues of concern to women and calls on policy makers and relevant agencies to address them.

It relates the media's performance to the ways in which governments inform citizens to enable them participate in decision-making and how governments respond to issues of concern raised by and about the media.


It states that, "For democracy to function not only do women need adequate information to make choices at the ballot box but they also need to make decisions about their lives and to monitor and evaluate government policies and actions."

It stresses that government strengthens the institutions set up to regulate media content by providing adequate human and financial resources to enable them perform their functions in a manner which does not jeopardize press freedom, while promoting the goals of gender sensitivity and fairness.

Sexual Abuse

Defilement is defined as the act of having sexual intercourse with a child below the age of 18 or a minor, as stated in the children's Act of Ghana. The UN CRC adopted 20 years ago stresses that the dignity and rights of every child are to be respected in every circumstance.

Since then, it has served as a working tool for Ghana and has been translated into six major local languages, but there is still a long way to go. Many are the children who are defiled each day but do not have the courage to disclose their plight.

Majority of such victims are children who live in compound houses and newly created suburbs or vicinities, where only few people have put up buildings.Other groups of victims are children who seem to have no parental or guardian control.

A recent study on the menace found that about 90 percent of defilement cases were perpetrated by adults, mostly relatives in whose care the children were entrusted.

Most men who abuse these minors sexually have often been successful in deceiving their victims with threats of death, should they disclose to anybody.

Some culprits also give their victims confectionaries or meager sums to prevent them from disclosing their ordeal to anybody.

However, these culprits have often denied such charges at the initial stages only for them to admit later in court claiming it is the devil who lured them to commit such 'sins'.

There is the general perception that such acts by some men are for ritual purposes particularly for money. This is because in some of the cases, fathers were found to have defiled their own daughters as young as one year old. Could this be lack of self-control or simply satisfaction of their selfish pleasures?

Effects of sexual abuse
The trauma that defiled children go through is beyond comprehension and description, according to psychologists.

Sadly, the victims are not able to disclose their ordeal to anybody, not even their parents or their friends and turn to live with their traumatic situation for life.

Psychologists say this is a contributory factor to many unsuccessful marriages.In Ghana, culture plays a major role in our lives, such that even when such cases are disclosed there is often an attempt to settle it amicably between families and not in the law courts.

Until about a decade ago, it was uncalled for to send a neighbor or relative to court for defiling a minor. The number of defilement cases in Ghana appears to be increasing, with reported cases of forced sexual intercourse with a minor appearing almost daily in the media.

Experts say the rampant cases of defilement across the country could pass as pedophilia, which is being disguised as defilement.

In the first two months of this year, the Accra office of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), of the Ghana Police Service reported 77 cases of defilement. Last year, there were 552 reported cases of defilement, up from the 449 reported in 2007.

In 2008, defilement cases ranked third among all crimes. The fact that some perpetrators of defilement are arrested several times for the crime has raised concerns as to whether the nation is really dealing with pedophiles and Ghana is refusing to name the criminals as such.

Pedophilia is defined as an obsession with children as sex objects. Overt acts, including taking sexually explicit photographs, molesting children, and exposing one's genitals to children are all crimes.

Pedophilia is also commonly treated as a mental illness, and the pedophile is often released only to repeat the crimes or escalate the activity to the level of murder.

In a 2005 United Nations survey of 2,011 women across Ghana, 6% of the women said they had been defiled before. Titled "Violence against Women: The Ghanaian Case," the survey found that 78% of the perpetrators, the women in the survey reported, were close relatives, acquaintances or family friends.In the same survey, of the 1,035 males who participated, 52% said men have sex with very young girls because of weak morals. 14% percent thought that men who do that are opportunists, 13 % said the men lack self respect and 8% thought that such men are not normal and may have psychological problems.

The Domestic Violence Unit
The creation of the unit has brought a new dimension to fighting defilement and child trafficking. People are now beginning to know their rights and therefore lodge complaints of defilement and other domestic violence cases to the unit.

It investigates such cases of defilement and sends them to the courts for prosecution. Human rights experts attribute the situation to the general breakdown in moral upbringing.

The Chief Psychiatrist of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Akwasi Osei says that although pedophilia is against the law in Ghana, it is not treated as such; instead it is treated as defilement.

He argues that Ghana has overlooked this aspect of sex crimes for far too long and that it is important to take it into consideration now.He explains that since pedophilia is a subconscious personality development or a psychological makeup people form as they grow up, perpetrators of defilement need to be assessed to determine if they are really pedophiles.

He stressed the need for the revision of the law so that such people can be assessed.

"It is dangerous for Ghana to be putting a good number of people in prison as criminals, while ignoring psychiatric treatment, which is a disservice to the perpetrator and society at large."

Child rights activists have also cautioned that although the numbers of sexual assaults against children would appear to be on the rise, in reality it may just be that more people are reporting the crime because of increased education on the issue. Sadly, DOVVSU unit is unable to keep track of perpetrators of defilement after their conviction because there is no mechanism to do so.

Complicating the matter is the poor addressing system in the country as a whole. More stringent laws and greater enforcement of those laws could discourage pedophilia and become a deterrent to the crime.

However, legal experts argue that the issue is not about what to call the sexual deviancy; rather, the most important thing is that there is a law that prohibits pedophilia with a seven-year minimum penalty and 25-year maximum confinement.

With inadequate policy implementation in Ghana, the onus is on the media to help expose cases of child abuse. The welfare of children should be a core value of the media's operations.

An analysis, carried out by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), revealed that Public Agenda reported 24 out of the 60 cases studied, with the victims mostly between the age of 12 and 14 years.

Little wonder it won the first Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Human Rights Award for 2005 and 2008. CHRI revealed that in the Ghanaian society where children have been made to accept whatever elderly people tell them; these actions are more than enough to keep any child silent.

Of all the cases reported by the newspapers, the suspects had either been jailed, remanded or the cases were pending before the courts at the time the newspapers published the stories.

According to the CHRI, because defilement and rape are overwhelmingly perpetrated by an acquaintance of the victim, including family members, it is imperative that measures are taken to teach children about sexual crimes so that they will be prepared to deal with them if they happen.

Strengthening the media
It must however be said that the media need more resources and capacity building to continue to play their watchdog role of protecting the rights of women and children. Available statistics show that over 90% of the victims of domestic violence are women and children.

Some religions, including some sects of Christianity appear to permit the right of punishment for wives.Since the church or religion is the core of the family, its contribution towards ensuring the rights of people cannot be overlooked.

Ghana has taken concrete measures to translate various conventions and treaties into implementation policies but inadequate financial resources to translate all its commitment into desired measurable results have been a major challenge.

Child rights activists have argued that any journalistic activity that touches on the lives and welfare of children should always be carried out with appreciation of the vulnerable situation of children.

As journalists, we must never put in jeopardy the safety and dignity of women and children. We are to regard the violation of the rights of children and issues related to their safety, privacy, education, health and social welfare, and all forms of exploitation as important questions for investigations and public debate.

It is about time journalists recognize themselves as partners in women and children rights advocacy and upholding the rights of women and children in Ghana.