Young girls are target of attacks – NGO

Ms Joyce Opoku-Boateng, Chief Executive Officer of NIMBUS Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), championing the rights of women and girls, on Thursday asked the state to empower females on their rights as enshrine in the laws.

She said women especially young girls are target of various forms of attack and violence and society must rise up to speak against the practice.

“Every child on the street are entitled to all the rights in their respective countries’ constitution and the international conventions on women and children,” she said and challenged leaders to stand up to their responsibilities to provide every child with quality education and shelter.

Ms Opoku-Boateng made the request at a day’s sensitisation workshop to mark this year’s United Nations Day on the Girl Child scheduled for Saturday, October 11.

It was organised by the NIMBUS Foundation in collaboration with Gender and Counselling Unit and Students Representative Council of University of Professional Studies to highlight the various challenges women, especially young girls face.

The global theme for the day is: “Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence.”

Ms Opoku-Boateng noted that women’s rights and children’s rights are linked because if the mother suffers, the children suffer as well and “we need to put in proactive measures to secure the interest of every child”.

“Ghana is a signatory to all the international conventions and treaties on violence against women and children and it behoves…Ghanaians to refer to all of these conventions and treaties and hold government accountable to ensure that it rise up to its responsibilities,” she added.

She said advocacy should start from the country’s tertiary institutions and should not be left only for the civil society organisations because violations of rights occur on daily basis and “we need to open our eyes to bring the perpetrators to book”.

Ms Opoku-Boateng, who is also a Lawyer, said legal literacy is a powerful tool for women’s empowerment and advancement.

“If women know about the law, they would use them to defend themselves and we must keep on educating each other on the laws to enable any woman in these challenges know the appropriate quarters for redress.

“Some of the cases could have been solved and not necessarily waiting for them to be sent to the law courts, if women know about those laws that protect their rights,” she added.

She urged all especially the educated ones to abreast themselves of the content of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to protect their rights.

Dr Augustina Amakye, Lecturer at African University College of Communication, said day-in-day-out, violence such as rape is perpetrated against women, but out of the lot only five per cent of victims report to the enforcement agencies.

She said violence is not the answer to one’s achievements and asked people who felt they have been wrong in one way or the other to resort to the right channel to solve the issues.

She called on women and young girls to feel free to talk to the law enforcement agencies such as the Police, Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Counsellors or family members when they find themselves in abusive relations.

Albert Nii Kraku Erastus, Executive Director, Global Youth Focus, an NGO, advised women, especially young girls to try as much as they could to be different by educating themselves to add more values to their personality.

Dr Fiona Gibson, a Lecturer at University College of Professional Studies, who chaired the occasion encouraged women to aspire high in life to make their mark.

She said gone were the days when people think that if women are well educated they would not get men to marry.

Dr Gibson noted that emotional abuse kills women more than physical abuse.

She commended the NIMBUS Foundation for their good work and urged the members to focus on the education of the boy-child as well.