Compassion International urges end to child marriage

Compassion International, Ghana, a non-governmental organisation over the weekend celebrated the Day of the African Child with a call on state actors and the public to do more to end child marriages in Ghana.

The organisation observed that, girls who fall victim to child marriages suffered health risks, triggered by early sexual activity and child bearing, which could spark maternal and child mortality.

Mr Padmore Baffour Agyepong, the Country Director of Compassion International Ghana made the call over the weekend in a speech read on his behalf ahead of the celebration of the day of the African Child, which falls on June 16 every year.

The theme for the 2015 celebration is: “25 years after the adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our collective efforts to end child marriage in Africa.”

The celebration seeks to draw public attention to some harmful social and cultural practices against children, and to highlight the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders to eliminate such practices.

The day also underscores the roles and responsibilities of the States Parties to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in order to combat and eliminate harmful practices against children in Africa.

He said it was common to see girls below the age of 18 being pulled out of schools to marry in most remote parts of the country, a practice, he noted devastated the lives of the girls, their families and communities.

Mr Agyapong said victims of child marriages, who were expected to be in school, did not receive holistic training that would release them from poverty and make them responsible adults.

“Child brides have no power to say no to unwanted sexual intercourse, which makes them more likely to contract HIV and other transmitted diseases,” he said.

“Sexual violence and domestic servitude have become part and parcel of child brides in Ghana and Africa at large.

Girls under 15 were five times more likely to die during child birth than women in their 20s.

He urged stakeholders, particularly parents, chiefs and opinion leaders to be guided by the eight millennium development goals agenda, which touches on halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, reducing maternal and child mortality as well as providing universal primary education to help combat child marriage.

He also called on adults, parents, religious, political, and traditional leaders to commit themselves to combating all forms of cultural practices and policies that infringed the rights and freedoms of children, especially girls.

Mr Bright Appiah, the Executive Director of Child Rights International, in his keynote address, said child marriage was an open secret in Ghana, rooted in culture, among the educated and uneducated, with no territorial jurisdiction.

According to him, one out of every four Ghanaian girls got married before age 18, saying, “such girls become less productive to the economy in their productive age because they have no skills to march their role in society.”

A WiLDAF Survey has shown that Ghana had one of the highest child marriage occurrence rates in Africa.

The statistics had been corroborated by the Ghana Demographic and health survey in 2008, which indicated that about 20 per cent of women aged 20 and 24 were married or were in union before age 18.

On 16 June every year, the African Union celebrates the Day of the African Child, in commemoration of the 1976 protests by school children in Soweto, South Africa, which resulted in the killing of unarmed young protesters by police officials.

The day provides an opportunity for governments, international Institutions and communities to renew their commitments towards improving the plight of children.