CHRAJ needs to do more for women- Bossman

Cape Coast, March. 9, GNA- The acting Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Ms. Anna Bossman on Thursday, stressed that there was the need for the Commission to do more in the protection and promotion of women's rights in the country, by helping to eliminate embedded customs, traditions and rites that impinge on the dignity of women.

She, for instance, expressed concern that some of such negative practices such as the 'trokosi' system, have become so entrenched that some people do not regard them as human right violations. Ms Bossman, who was interacting with the press in Cape Coast, as a prelude to a five-day 'retreat' being organised by the Commission for its management staff, also called on all women to lead in the crusade of promoting and safeguarding their rights.

The acting CHRAJ boss renewed her concerns about conditions in the country's prisons, describing them as "unacceptable," and repeated calls on government to review them in order to make them reformative rather than punitive institutions.

On human rights record in the country, she was optimistic that "a lot of progress" had been made in the area of human rights protection and education and that general awareness on human right issues had "gone up considerably."

"People have learnt from history and have also realized that there is some level of awareness of human right issues, therefore they cannot do anything and get away with it", she declared.

She said the Commission had done a lot to ensure that the rights of the individual was protected, and urged the government to adequately resource it to facilitate its function of promoting good governance in the country.

Ms Bossman, had earlier, led top management personnel of the Commission, including the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Richard Quayson to pay a courtesy call on the Central Regional Minister, Mr Isaac Edumadze. Mr. Edumadze told them that human rights abuses were minimal in the region due to high level of awareness, but said the region was grappling with issues like child labour and truancy, and communal clashes due to chieftaincy disputes.

He therefore, cautioned "chieftaincy contractors" that the RCC would deal with them, stressing that it would not support chiefs and queens who have not been gazetted.

Mr Edumadze urged the Commission to educate the public on its functions to enable more people to avail themselves of their services to cut down the number of legal suits.