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• Nana Oye Lithur (right), the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection

Ghana defends child rights in Geneva

November 1989 was historical in many ways to the promotion of child rights.

It was the first time that children were recognised as rights holders in an international treaty, which marked the transition from addressing children's immediate needs through charity alone, to galvanising the move towards advocacy that would bring about systematic change for the realisation of their rights.

The adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the UN General Assembly, which was opened for signature ratification and accession by a UN resolution on November 20, 1989, made the year historic to the promotion of children's rights.

Ghana first to ratify

The CRC entered into force on September 2, 1990, and Ghana was the first country to ratify the convention that year. Since then, the country has enacted the Children's  Act (Act 560), 1998. The country has since submitted its Initial, 2nd and 3rd Consolidated reports and 3rd, 4th and 5th Combined reports to the United Nation's Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

It also monitors implementation of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC) and on the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography (OPSC).

On December 19,  2011, the UN General Assembly approved a third Optional Protocol on communications protection (OPIC), which allows individual children to submit complaints regarding specific violations of their rights under the Convention and its first two optional protocols.

All state parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the committee on how the rights of children are being implemented. States must submit an initial report two years after, to the convention and then periodic reports every five years.

The committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the state party in the form of 'concluding observations'.

Ghana’s commitment

In accordance with the mandate of Ghana's Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to secure the welfare and rights of children, and to formulate policies for their development, the sector Minister, Nana Oye Lithur, is in Geneva, Switzerland at the 6th Session at Palais Wilson in Geneva from May 18 to May 22, 2015 as the head of a Ghanaian delegation, to  present the country's final response to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on list of issues raised on the 3rd, 4th and 5th consolidated periodic report on implementation of the CRC. 

Among the general issues to be raised by the minister's statement are the country's Constitutional Statutory, Policy and Institutional Framework relating to the promotion of the rights of children, addressing the needs of vulnerable children, improving birth registration, right to health and health services, HIV and AIDS and children, eliminating harmful traditional practices, children and poverty and access to education.

In a statement at a mock session on the defence of the country's report organised in Ghana last week, Nana Lithur asserted that there were challenges of financial, human and material resource constraints, as well as structural limitations still to be addressed, but indicated that the progress made so far would not have been possible without the political commitment and support from stakeholders, including civil society organisations and the country's development partners.

She expressed the hope to touch on a number of issues to express the government's commitment to realising the rights of the child and gave an assurance of the ministry's full commitment to fulfil the country's obligation under the CRC. 

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