Ghana submits report to UNCRC

Takoradi May 14 (Smith)-GNA-Ghana has submitted her second country report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in March this year, Mrs Marilyn Amponsah-Annan, Acting Executive Secretary of the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC) announced on Tuesday.

This was contained in an address read for her by Mr John Hackman, Senior Regional Coordinator of the GNCC in-charge of the Western Region, at a one-day workshop on the report in Takoradi.

The workshop under the theme: "Dissemination of Ghana's Country Report to the UNCRC" was attended by traditional rulers representatives of the Attorney-General's Department, Media, Ghana Education Service and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) from the Western and Central Regions.

Mrs Amponsah-Annan said the report was prepared by the GNCC under the auspices of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) with inputs from government implementing sectors and other collaborators and with support from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). She said the 80-page report chronicles the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) from 1997 to 2003. Mrs Amponsah-Annan said Ghana sent her first report to the UNCRC in 1995 and defended it in 1997.

Mrs Amponsah-Annan said the report was reviewed by the UNCRC, which recommended an increase in the protection of children in all aspects of their development and the implementation of health and educational policies.

She called on the participants to identify setbacks in the implementation of the Rights of Children so that the country would be able to submit a good report to UNCRC in the next five years. Mr Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi, a research officer of GNCC, told the workshop that Ghana has made great efforts to bring national legislation and practice in conformity with the principles and provisions of the CRC.

He said the Juvenile Justice Act, for the protection of the rights of Juveniles and young offenders, has also been passed in accordance with the CRC and UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice.

He said the MOWAC has been established to fill administrative lapses, which hitherto impeded the successful implementation of the CRC adding that institutional reforms to improve the administration of issues affecting women and children included the establishment of the National Council on Women and Development, GNCC, Women and Juvenile Unit of the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC).