Promoting and protecting child rights in ghana

By George Ofosu Oti

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted in 1989 is an international convention that spells out the manner in which children should be treated with regards to their rights; civil, political, social, economic and cultural. The convention defines a child as a person below the age of 18 years.

Nations that ratify the CRC are bound by international law and are expected to abide by its principles in matters that relate to the well-being of children.

As a signatory to the CRC, Ghana is under obligation to ensure the promotion and protection of child rights irrespective of the child's nationality. Local instruments adopted by Ghana to help achieve this goal include the Children's Act(1998), the Juvenile Justice Act(2003), the Persons With Disability Act(2006), the Human Trafficking Act(2006), the Domestic Violence Act(2007), and the Child and Family Welfare Policy(2015).

Like many other children of different countries around the world, children in Ghana face problems that curtail their rights. Some of these problems are Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Labour, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Child Marriage, Trokosi (Female Religious Bondage) and various forms of discrimination against children.

Violation of child rights in Ghana occurs in various institutions and places such as schools, orphanages/children's homes, hospitals, churches, traditional/fetish shrines and homes. Child rights violations are perpetrated by all manner of persons and includes relatives/guardians, teachers, health workers, religious leaders and practitioners, care givers and strangers.

Four Factors that Account for the Violation of Child Rights in Ghana are:

1. The Vulnerability of Children

Children are known to be among the most vulnerable of persons. Their vulnerability makes them indefensible to all forms of actions that curtail their rights and freedoms. Children are also known to be among the voiceless in Ghanaian society with little or no say in matters that affect them.
Traditionally, about eighty percent (80%) of decisions that affect children are taken without their views being sought. As such, they are left at the mercy of unhelpful decisions or courses of action.

2. Ignorance of Child Rights

Ignorance of child rights is prevalent in Ghana especially among illiterate populations. Sometimes in cases where the rights of the child is known, they are ignored, leading to the curtailment of those rights. Most children in Ghana (school-going children included) are ignorant of their own rights as children and so do not even know when their rights are being curtailed.
Usually in cases where children know that their rights are being curtailed or violated, they do not know what actions to take to stop or prevent similar actions from occurring in the future.

3. Outmoded Perceptions about Children

Outmoded perceptions about children is another factor that accounts for the violation of child rights in Ghana. Various traditional schools of thought have outmoded views or perceptions about children. These unacceptable perceptions leads to the promotion of child rights violations in Ghana.

For example, one traditional school of thought believe that children are a cheap source of labour. Those who have this perception about children are known to be the worst offenders or culprits of child labour. They engage children in various forms of labour at the expense of their education.

Another outmoded perception about children in Ghana that promotes child rights violation is the perception that girls are sex objects and meant for marriage. This perception alone accounts for incidents of child marriage in rural communities in Ghana especially in the northern part of Ghana. In cases where girls are not married off at an early or very young age, they are deprived of the opportunity of receiving higher forms of education with most girls completing their education at the primary or junior high school level which is usually not enough to make meaningful contributions or impact in the life of the girl child.

4. Inadequate Protection for Children

Though the Government of Ghana is doing its best to protect children, efforts in this regard is not sufficient as cases of child abuse abound.
Ghana Web, a news agency reports that a total of 5,752 children were defiled in Ghana, between 2010-2014 with 342 of the cases perpetrated by family members of the victims.

It further reports that statistics from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service shows that 968 defilement cases were reported in 2010, 1159 in 2011, 1097 in 2012, 1230 in 2013, and 1298 in 2014. These statistics are quite alarming and calls for increased action to curb the situation.

Dealing with the problem of child abuse or child rights violation requires a collective effort from both government and citizenry.

What can be done to Promote and Protect Child Rights in Ghana?
As said earlier, dealing with issues of child rights violations requires a collective effort from both state and non-state actors.

Firstly, there must be increased education on child rights. There is almost no place in Ghana that children cannot be found. And so wherever children are known to be found, there must be education on child rights. This will ensure that we have a well-informed citizenry when it comes to issues of child rights.

There should be education and awareness creation on child rights in all public and private institutions as well as in community neighbourhoods especially the rural areas. The media can be used as an effective tool in this regard. Children should also be a main target group in this education as they are the ones affected by the violation of their rights.

Secondly, state institutions in charge of children should be empowered to carry out their mandate. State institutions like the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service all have a mandate to protect children.

They should therefore be supported with funds and other logistics needed to fight or address issues or problems related to child rights violations. Lack of funds can and does greatly hamper the efforts of these institutions in protecting children.

Thirdly, the celebration of the United Nations' Universal Children's Day on November 20th each year should be given much attention in Ghana as it will help promote awareness on the need to improve children's welfare. The United Nations' Children's Universal Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide and improve children's welfare.

As a country, we can take this event more seriously and localize its celebration at the Metropolitan, Municipal and District levels. This will go a long way to promote awareness on child rights and help reduce child rights violations in Ghana.

Finally, stiffer punishments and sanctions should be introduced and meted out to offenders and perpetrators of child rights violations. Existing laws should be amended to include stiffer punishment for perpetrators of child rights violations. Goods and services that are known to be provided through the use of child labour should not be patronized.

The above mentioned recommendations if given attention to will go a long way to promote and protect child rights in Ghana.

The author is a Social Worker with African Development Programme (ADP)