Ignore threats and report rape, defilement cases - Victims advised
A Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Della Sowah, has advised victims of rape and defilement to ignore threats from their perpetrators and report such cases to their parents or trusted adults.
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According to her, most defilement cases remained unreported, even to heath facilities due to threats victims received from perpetrators.
She also advised the youth to desist from raping and sodomising infants and other youth because defilement is a criminal and inhumane act.
Advice to parents
Speaking at a symposium on domestic violence in Accra last Monday, she said considering the prevalence rate of defilement, parents needed to develop a very good rapport with their children so that they could confide in them if they were defiled or sexually abused.
She asked parents to develop the habit of examining their children on a daily basis so that any physical or psychological abuse is picked up promptly for necessary actions to be taken.
“Do not cover perpetrators because if you continue covering them, they will continue with the act,” she said.
Reporting perpetrators to be prosecuted, she said, would serve as a deterrent to others.
According to the deputy minister, the sector ministry had received reports of some alleged perpetrators escaping prosecution for many reasons and indicated that those allegations would be investigated, in collaboration with the police.
Mrs Sowah reiterated that justice was a right and not a privilege, and therefore, the ministry would ensure that victims were given justice.
The symposium
The symposium was organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection for selected junior and senior high schools in the Greater Accra Region.
It was aimed at increasing the knowledge of the youth on domestic violence as part of measures to reduce its prevalence rate, particular among the youth.
Some youth have been identified to be defiling children below their ages and sometimes their fellow youth, by sodomising and raping them.
Ensure all cases are prosecuted
In her remarks, the Principal Nursing Officer of the Child Health Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ms Harriet Klufio, called on the Domestic Violence and Victims’ Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service to ensure that all reported cases of sexual abuse were investigated and the perpetrators brought to book.
She said the department records at least six cases of sexual abuse involving infants every month, but majority of such cases were not reported to any health facility.
She expressed worry that despite the effort by the department to get evidence to enable DOVVSU to prosecute cases of sexual violence against children, a search by the department established that most of the reported cases did not even get to the court for the law to take its course.
She advised that all institutions mandated by law to prosecute or facilitate the process of prosecution must adhere strictly to their mandate to ensure that victims were given justice.
Ms Klufio said the department, the only one in the country, was under-resourced and, therefore, called on benevolent institutions to support it financially and materially to boost its operations.
According to her, the parents of most victims were financially handicapped, placing a lot of financial demand on the department and, therefore, needed help from individuals and institutions.