Women slam CHRAJ and Department of Social Welfare’s handling of abuses

Participants at a forum on women’s rights at Keta have slammed the Department of Social Welfare and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for doing too little in protecting women’s rights and interests.

They accused these institutions of favoring men hauled before them for abusing their wives and women including failure to maintain their children.

The mainly women forum observed that, officials at the helm of the two institutions were predominantly men, some of whose decisions were influenced by chauvinistic biases.

A participant alleged that, an officer of the Department of Social Welfare who was handling a case she brought against her husband, went behind her to convince court officials to throw out the case.

Representative of both CHRAJ and the Department of Social Welfare who briefed participants on their rights, however described allegations of bias as mere perceptions.

Miss Abigail Larbi, a Programme Officer of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), organizers of the Forum, said society would be protecting itself by protecting its women.

Mr Mawulikplim Vortepe, General Manager of the Keta-based Jubilee Radio, one of the collaborating radio stations, said his outfit would always protect the rights of women against all forms of harassment, denials, assault; including taking out slants against women in its programmes.

Participants drawn from the Keta Municipality and parts of the Ketu South District, lauded the project for exposing them to issues they were ignorant about and called for more radio programmes on women.

The forum was organized by the MFWA to assess the performance of a project dubbed “using radio to promote women’s rights in Ghana,” instituted by the Foundation in collaboration with 12 radio stations in the country.

MFWA seeks to build the capacity of journalists, towards addressing issues pertaining to women’s rights, local governance and to protect journalists against authorities in West Africa.

The collaborating radio, whose personnel are trained in laws on the rights of women and the mandate of institutions including CHRAJ, holds weekly discussion programmes focusing on women issues including abuses and referral institutions.**