Workshop on combating violence against children opens in Tema

Tema, Sept. 3, GNA - A workshop on preventing and combating all forms of violence against children and youths in justice institutions, opened in Tema on Thursday with a call to give children the right type of training to become responsible adults.

Mr Charles Kotey, Tema Metropolitan Coordinating Director, who made the call, noted that as our heritage, children ought to be groomed in an atmosphere where they would be imbued with the right knowledge and ideas.

The two-day workshop has been put together by the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC) in partnership with Child Rights International and Plan Ghana, with the European Union as the sponsoring agency.

It has: “Respecting, Protecting and Fulfilling the Rights of all Children,” as its theme.

Mr Kotey underscored the need for good parenting if children were to take over from the aged.

He was optimistic that the workshop would come up with a proper framework that would take good care of children within the Metropolis.

Mrs Josephine Koduah, a member of the Coalition, regretted that in spite of the Juvenile Justice Act, which states that “the welfare of the juvenile shall be paramount in any matter concerned with the juvenile”, some children with minor crimes had found themselves in care institutions.

GNCRC is a network of 48 active NGOs whose activities impact positively on the rights of children.