We are committed to child protection – IGP

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr Mohamed AL Hassan, has pledged the readiness of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) to do all it could to protect and defend the well-being of children in the country.

He noted that although the introduction of DOVVSU, Community Policing, and the Anti-human Trafficking concepts had done a lot to protect children in the country, more action was needed to ensure the well-being of children.

“Even though these child friendly activities have been going on in the Service, it has been done by these specialized units which are not found in police districts and stations across the country”, he added.

Mr Al Hassan said this on Wednesday during the launch of a programme to integrate child friendly policing into the GPS, which was sponsored by the e UNICEF.

The initiative, which had been developed into a curriculum, would be taught in all the seven police training schools across the country, and would train and give the Police the appropriate tools to intervene as per their mandate and effectively refer children to the relevant stakeholders of child protection or justice system.

Other primary objectives of the initiative include improving children’s access to justice, addressing ethical issues faced by law enforcement personnel in their daily work, as far as children were concerned, and developing a standard operating procedure for handling children.

The rest include integrating in a permanent manner, quality training on children’s rights and protection into the police training schools.

Mr AL Hassan expressed the hope that the implementation of the “Integrating Child-Friendly Policing into the Ghana Police Service” programme would go a long way to adequately enable the Service to handle issues which come before them, as far as children’s rights were concerned.

Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, Minister of the Interior, said the initiative would assist the Police Service to be of world class quality, capable of delivering planned, protective and peaceful service in accordance with international standards and best practices.

“For those who have travelled to many countries and outside Ghana, particularly in the sub –region and beyond, we dare to say that the GPS is doing very well and it merits its billing as one of the best in Africa”, he said.

“However, as a human institution, the GPS has still more room for improvement in such critical areas such as how to handle children who come into contact with the law, whether as victims, witnesses or even culprits”, he added.

He intimated that children form a significant proportion of the population of Ghana and therefore, any project designed to help them should be considered of great importance to the society.

He pointed out that Government was taking concrete steps to reform, improve and make relevant, the overall Child Protection System, through developing the forthcoming Justice for Children Policy as well as the Child and Family Welfare Policy.

He expressed his appreciation to the UNICEF, the International Bureau for Children and the Ministry of Gender and Social protection for their assistance in spearheading the fruitful implementation of the initiative.

He disclosed that the Nsawam Female Prisons had created a special wing for lactating mothers and appealed to the Gender Ministry to assist the Interior Ministry in alleviating the plight of the vulnerable.

Ms Susan Ngongi, UNICEF Representative to Ghana, said the Government of Ghana, with technical and financial support from UNICEF and other child protection stakeholders, had embarked upon a process of reforming the national child protection system.

She mentioned abuse and exploitation of children, children detained for long periods before trials, as well as being children being treated as adults within the justice systems as some of the challenges faced by children within the justice system.