HFFG holds social justice training in Tamale

Hope For Future Generations (HFFG), a youth inclined organisation has held a two-day training programme for social justice institutions and the Ghana Health Service in Tamale, as part of its Get up, Speak Out (GUSO) project.

The training brought together officials from social justice institutions within the Northern Region to deliberate on social injustices against young people, which institutions and how to refer such cases to, for appropriate redress.

Madam Ira Etsa Heathcote-Fumafor, the Northern Regional Coordinator of HFFG, said the training was to get social institutions to refresh on the laws concerning young people and how to give them youth friendly services when they visit these institutions.

She said the training was further to help come up with effective and structured referral system for young people who are faced with social injustice, to enable them get timely assistance.

She said GUSO, which is a Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) project targeted all categories of young people from ages 10 to 24, to educate them to make informed choices and acquire skills from the training given them.

Mr Emmanuel Horlotu, the Northern Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) expressed worry about how some common injustices against children such as rape and defilement, which were punishable by law, had been kept away from social justice institutions and dealt with at home.

He cautioned parents to be responsible, see the raising of their children as responsibilities, and not just worthless properties, and advised single mothers not to deny their children the right to know who their fathers are, irrespective of how irresponsible the father may be, adding that such denials could affect the development of the child psychologically.

Mr Mac Matthew Chancellor, the Tamale Metropolitan Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), said the laws against social injustice remained silent if citizens failed to report such cases for appropriate actions to be taken, instead of blaming it on the law.

He said there was the need for citizens to remember that their rights which were protected by the law came with responsibilities which they often neglected.

Mr Jafaru Mohammed, the Gushegu District Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said victims of social injustices should not resort to keeping ill-treatments to themselves, because the commission was not mandated to investigate such related issues without complaint.

He stressed that it was necessary for people to test the law by reporting instances of injustice and human rights violations to the Commission, to enable it take action.