‘Ignorance of family laws exposes us to risk’
Ignorance on the part of people, especially women, of the country’s family laws has exposed them to the risk of falling victim to violence and abuse in the community and family.
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The Project Officer for What Works, a non-governmental organisation, Mrs Esther Darko-Mensah, who made the call, noted that the lack of understanding of the laws had left many families in confusion and many as victims of violence. She, therefore, advised people to study the various family laws.
She was speaking at a training workshop for the second batch of 120 people in family laws to enable them sensitise their communities to these laws and how they affect their well-being.
Pervasive social issue
The workshop, organised by the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (Gender Centre), a women’s right advocacy organisation, was also to equip the participants with a better understanding of issues of gender-based violence and human rights and help tackle the pervasive social issue of violence, especially against women.
The Gender Centre, with support and sponsorship from What Works, UKaid and the University of Ghana’s School of Public Health, organised the two-week training programme for participants from the Agona East and Agona West and the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem municipalities.
The trainees, who were carefully selected by Gender Centre and chiefs within their communities, were taken through “The Interstate Succession Law” “The Domestic Violence Act,” “Alternative Dispute Resolution,” “Wills Act”, “Children’s Act”, and the “Marriage Act”.
The training, which is the second phase of a programme for the participants, was to educate trainees, also called Community-based Action Teams (COMBAT), to help deal with disputes in the communities and to help reduce the incidence of domestic violence in the communities.
Empowerment
It was also to empower them to sensitise their communities to issues on violence against women, intervene during crisis, accompany victims to report to state agencies if required and provide counselling to victims.
Mrs Darko-Mensah said a number of people also suffered violence after the death of a spouse because they did not know the laws governing inheritance.
She pointed out that the Interstate Succession Law, for instance, was there to protect the immediate family from being maltreated and neglected after the death of a spouse, even if the person died interstate.
She added that gender-based violence had been perpetuated in many communities because many had not been empowered to understand the laws available and to deal with the issues decisively.
Informed decisions
Mrs Darko-Mensah pointed out that the aim of the project was not to break up families but to train people to also help empower victims of gender-based violence to enable them make informed decisions about what was happening to them.
She was optimistic that the training would enable the trainees to effectively sensitise their communities and help many more victims to overcome the cycle of violence and abuse.
In an interview, one of the participants, Mr Ato Cobbold, said there was not much education on gender-based violence in most communities, especially in rural communities and that the country’s traditional norms and values were usually against efforts to fight against gender-based violence.
Mr Cobbold said the training programme had equipped participants with a better understanding of family laws and they were ready to sensitise others to the topics.
He added, "we have learnt a lot of new things and we are now armed to educate our communities."