Use institutions to deal with social injustice "Adolescents advised"
Speakers at International Needs Ghana's (INGH) Safe and Protective Environment for Adolescent Development (SPREAD) project forum have reiterated the need for adolescents to leverage institutions put in place to help deal with social injustice.
They stated that, for instance, the government, since 2021, had been establishing new child-friendly gender-based violence courts to help address injustices against women and children, and bring to book all culpable persons.
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The speakers, therefore, called on all adolescents to report cases of gender-based violence and all forms of injustices to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service and other right authorities for justice to be served.
The SPREAD project, which is a national advocacy campaign for adolescent’s protection, was on the theme, “Achieving equality, justice and rights for children and adolescents”.
Held in Accra last Monday (February 20), the forum brought together stakeholders in child development and protection to deliberate on adolescent protection and to commemorate World Child Protection day.
Social inequalities
The Executive Director of INGH, Cromwell Awadey, in a speech read on his behalf by the Business Development and Communications Manager of INGH, Joseph Gordon-Mensah, said children and adolescents were mostly affected by any rise of social and economic crisis in the country.
Adolescents, he said, were faced with barricades of social inequalities which derailed them from realising their full potential.
"A total of 3.4 million children in Ghana are estimated to have experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
Adolescent girls are largely at risk of exposure to sexual violence within the context of close relationships such as those with the family, friends and intimate partners," Mr Awadey said.
He indicated that adolescents’ main barrier to an equitable chance in life was the multiple violations of their sexual and reproductive rights, which ranged from sexual coercion and violence to early pregnancy and child marriage.
Mr Awadey stated that although the government was chalking some success with the protection of children and adolescents, some socioeconomic challenges persist, which included the payment of medical examination fees by victims of defilement and rape, high cost of menstrual materials, limited access to education on their sexuality, in schools, as well as resource constraints for effective service delivery by duty bearers.
"On this august occasion, we call on the government to remove the taxes on sanitary pads.
Periods must not be taxed! Remove the burden of medical fees on victims of rape and defilement.
This is a double agony," the Executive director said.
Awareness
A Child Protection Specialist at UNICEF, Hilda Mensah, said as civil society organisations created awareness on the elimination on all forms of violence against girls and adolescents, there was the need to urge children and adolescents to continue to let their voices be heard in their communities, amongst their friends and governments, through national advocacy campaigns.
She expressed the hope that going forward, the partners would be able to collaborate to further strengthen joint accountability and build and enabling environment to prevent all injustices meted out on children and adolescents.