Minister calls for an end to child marriages
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has called on chiefs, traditional leaders and the national and regional houses of chiefs to help abolish child marriage in the country, saying the act is criminal.
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“We are calling on the various traditional authorities, through the Ministry of Chieftaincy, to use their good influence to abolish or modify this cultural and customary practice which is detrimental to the development of Ghanaian children”, she said.
Nana Lithur made the call at the media launch of this year’s National Children’s Day which falls on August 31, every year and will be launched nationally in Takoradi today, on the theme, “Eliminating child marriages — Our collective responsibility”.
The celebration aims at promoting the rights and welfare of Ghanaian children and raising awareness of specific challenges they face, as well as drawing attention to the status of the Ghanaian child and soliciting the support of stakeholders to enhance their development and existence.
Child marriages, according to the minister, per the Children’s Act 1998 and the Criminal Act 1960, constituted a violation of the right of children, adding that it was discriminatory, particularly against the girl child who was mostly affected and stood the risk of suffering all the adverse consequences.
Nana Lithur said many socio-cultural factors might account for child marriages in the country, such as poverty, perceived protection of girls from immorality, family honour and the provision of stability during unstable economic periods.
She said although Ghana was a signatory to conventions and instruments, including the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), child marriage had assumed disturbing trends in the country.
Giving statistics from the 2011 Multiple Cluster Survey (MICS), Nana Lithur said about 27 per cent of women were either married or in unions before the age of 18, adding that even though records suggested a decrease in the prevalence of child marriages, the pace of change was painfully slow.
The minister said if that practice which made it impossible for children to enjoy their childhood and the possibility of attaining the highest standard of self-development and actualisation was not stopped, the country would not be able to attain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2, 3, 4 and 5, which are universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health.
She, therefore, called for the collective effort of all to ensure that the issue of child marriage was abolished totally in the country, saying that while boys were equally affected by child marriage, “its impact on girls is greater in terms of being the larger number of victims and the most affected by all the related negative social-economic effects”.
She said early marriage created and sustained a cycle of poverty, increased dependency and high illiteracy rate, especially among girls.
By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho & Miriam Schirmer/Daily Graphic/Ghana