FORUM DISCUSSES UN REPORTS ON CHILDREN'S RIGHTS (PAGE 11, JULY 29, 2010)

Participants from various institutions and agencies, have attended a day’s consultative workshop in Wa to seek the views of stakeholders for the preparation and compilation of Ghana’s reports to the United Nations (UN) committee on the rights of the child.
They were made up of representatives from the security agencies, traditional rulers, the media, district assemblies, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU).
Issues that featured were rights of children in the country to quality education, health, good nutrition and juvenile justice among others, which were described as negative factors militating against all the efforts made to improve the lot of children.
The forum therefore, called for realistic policies and a quick response to address issues affecting children in the country.
The participants were of the view that despite the government's Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), there was still a wide gap between rural and urban children as far as education for children was concerned, and they mentioned inadequate infrastructure and human resource, as some of the challenges.
They said although the provision of free school uniforms and free meals under the School Feeding Programme were meant to improve on school enrolment and to ease the burden on parents, these policies have been over-politicised, while some parents have also shirked their responsibilities to send their children to school.
The Head of Research at the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), Mr Sylvester Kyei Gyamfi, however expressed optimism that with a concerted effort by all the parties working to promote the rights of children, more positive results could be realised.
He mentioned the passage of the Domestic Violence Act, Child Trafficking and the Juvenile Justice acts, as some of the breakthrough made with respect to protecting the rights of children.
He said access to quality education, quality healthcare and good nutrition, children’s involvement in commercial sex work and child-trafficking among others, were some of the outstanding issues being dealt with by the MOWAC.
Madam Florence Ayisi Quartey, a resource person, catalogued some of the challenges confronting MOWAC and mentioned lack of funds and inadequate human resource but gave the assurance that everything possible was being done to address the problems facing children.
She stressed the need for proper data collection and record keeping on children in order to gather accurate facts about children and their activities.