ILO Convention 190 will protect people from harassment

Mrs Kazia Kenneth Azumah a legal practitioner has said that the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) also known as C190 would help to protect vulnerable people against all forms of harassment.

Mrs Azumah, a board member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Ghana) and also a co-founder of Light in Law Ministry, noted that even though the Convention would help address violence and harassment at the workplace and Gender-Based-Violence, Ghana was yet to ratify it.

She said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a mentorship session for 60 adolescent girls from three basic schools in Kpone, organized by the Women, Media and Change (WOMEC) as part of this year’s commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

She explained that when Ghana ratified the Convention, harassment at the workplace would be a thing of the past as every employer would be required to have anti-harassment policies and sanctions at the workplace.

She said gender-based violence especially against women and girls must be nib in the bud to push the female gender to reach its full potential in society.

Mrs Azumah indicated that females by their biological makeup had specific challenges which unfortunately society capitalize on to harass and abuse them.

She said there was the need to harness such weaknesses into strengths through adequate orientation and mentorship from an early age to help them focus and work towards achieving great things in life.

She said females were naturally good at multi-tasking which was a strength that could be developed for them to recognize that no matter the challenges they found themselves in, they could excel in whatever they put their minds at.

The FIDA Ghana Board Member also called on government, opinion leaders, and all stakeholders to help nurture the female child into responsible adults saying women had a role to play in shaping the future of the country as they were gifted in caring for the younger ones, therefore giving them a footing would benefit everyone.

Dr Charity Binka, Executive Director of WOMEC, giving a brief of the mentorship session said it was an initiative by WOMEC under the GTP TurningPoint project aimed at empowering adolescent girls.

Dr Binka said the global theme for this year’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence was “Orange the world: End violence against women now!” while her outfit’s sub-theme was “Empowering the Girl Child: A necessary tool for ending violence against women girls.”

She said the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence was celebrated annually globally from November 25 to December 10, adding that this year marked the 30th anniversary of the campaign which was started in memory of the three Mirabal sisters who were murdered because they stood against the government of Dominican Republic.

Encouraging the girls to aim high, she reminded the girls that it was their right to be in school and therefore must strive to stay in and complete their education at the highest level, “a good education can boost a woman’s quality of life and opens doors to decent work opportunities, educating girls is a powerful tool for reducing violence, education can translate into economic opportunities for women and their families.”