20th Anniversary of Ghana NGOs Coalition on the rights of the child held in Bolgatanga- UER

A child is a beautiful gift from God and in many societies, when a child is born, it is a joyous moment in the family and the world as a whole.

Therefore, a child falls into the category of beautiful gift that require protection and preservation. Children are considered as future leaders and without them a country is without a future

The children’s Act of 1998, Act 560 defines a child as a person below the age of eighteen years.

 Hence, any person below eighteen years should have inalienable right to be protected by parents, family and society.

A child therefore must not be discriminated against irrespective of his or her background. It is in line with this that the 20^th Anniversary Celebration of the Ghana NGOS Coalition on the rights of the Child has been organized in Bolgatanga.

The Upper East Regional Minister Rockson Ayine Bukari has called on parents and families to send their children to school so that they can benefit from government’s social interventions such as the National School Feeding Programme and the Free Secondary Education, which he assured, will be rolled out in September this year.

The Regional Minister said this at the 20^th Anniversary Celebration of the Ghana NGOs Coalition on the Rights of the Child, GNCRC, in Bolgatanga.

It was under the theme, “SDGs for All children in Ghana and Africa as a continent; Accelerating Protection, Empowerment and Equal Opportunity”

Mr. Bukari echoed that successive governments have made giant strives to promote child protection by enacting the children’s Act of 1998, Act 560, the formulation of a Comprehensive Child and Family Welfare, Justice for Children’s Policy, developed Resources Guide and Tool kit on Ending Child Marriage in Ghana, developing the Ghana National Household Registry and signing of protocols and conventions on Child Rights among other interventions.

 

These policies, he added, taps into the positive traditional values, principles and protective practices of the Ghanaian culture.

He emphasized that government through the support of UNICEF had established Regional Child Protection Committees across the country with the objective to contributing to the promotion of child protection.

Mr. Bukari stated that Ghana belongs to the United Nations and has adopted the Seventeen Goals encapsulated in the SDGs, which is expected to be achieved in 2030.

 

According to the National Coordinator of GNCRCs, Barima Akwasi Amankwah, Ghana is currently under tier 2 of the US report on trafficking in persons, with an increasing 1.9 million in child labor representing 21.8 percent of the children population in Ghana.

The national prevalence of child marriage has not declined but remained significantly stable between 2011 and 2014, at the rate of 27 percent with limited understanding of issues regarding disability and negative attitude towards children with disability.

Moreover, there seem to be limited access to justice for children in conflict with the law. Mr Amankwah, disclosed that weak justice system in dealing with civil cases such as custody, maintenance, paternity of children, and the rate of teenage pregnancy in Ghana is as high as 30 percent as at 2014.

Meanwhile, statistics show that the Ghana Demographic Health Survey report indicated that Child Marriages in the three northern regions alone stood at 36.1 percent in the Upper East, 37.3 in the Upper West and 39.7 percent in the northern region as at 2014.

This calls for a concerted efforts on all concern citizens to rise up to the challenge and put a stop to the trend.