Assemblyman commends NDC for enforcing Child Panel concept

Bolgatanga, June 21, GNA- Mr. Alexis Adugdaa Ayamdor, Assembly member for Zorku Kanga Electoral Area, in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region, has commended government for constituting child panels nationwide, to promote the rights of children under the Children's Act.

Mr. Ayamdor, said although the Constitution made it mandatory for all Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies (MMDAs) to constitute the panels to handle issues affecting children, under the decentralization concept, it has taken the political courage of the ruling National Democratic Congress to implement it. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, he said some of the MMDAs had started constituting their child panel as directed by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs.

Mr. Ayamdor, who is the District Chairman of the Social Services Sub-Committee of the Child Panel, explained that under the concept stakeholders including assembly members and chiefs would be appointed as members of the panel to ensure that the rights of children are not trampled upon. He expressed disappointment about some law enforcement agencies, which fails to take action against the perpetrators of child abuse to serve as deterrent to others. Mr. Ayamdor stressed the need for offenders including parents who exploit the labour of their children to be made to face the full rigours of the law. He stressed that under the children's Act, every child has the right to be protected from engaging in any work that constitute a threat to his or her health, education or development, adding that a child should not be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Mr. Ayamdor said one of the major problems affecting children in the district, was forceful marriages imposed on them by their parents, which led some of them to drop out of school. He observed that another serious threat to children, is that some parents prefer to send their male children to school, with the notion that the female ones would be married and stay with their husbands, thus denying their fathers' of the care they needed in future. Mr. Ayamdor said intensive public education campaign would be embarked upon to educate parents on the need to shy away from certain outmoded customs that hindered child rights in the District.