Tema June 17, GNA — The International Day of the African Youth (IDAY) has marked the 2020 celebrations of the African child with a call on Ghanaians to ensure the protection of the youth in the course of justice delivery.
The celebrations, which was on the theme, “Access to a child-friendly Justice System in Africa,” was also used to educate the youth to know their rights and responsibilities within the justice system to ensure that their rights were not infringed upon in the process.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday at the Community Centre, Tema, Secretary, IDAY Ghana, Mrs Portia Adu-Mensah, observed that, “Their duty was to teach the children to know what it meant to be heard and also give them the opportunity to be ambassadors by educating others on their rights and responsibilities in society.”
“The essence of that is for children to note that when it comes to judicial proceedings, children have the chance and opportunity to be heard and have their rights protected,” she added.
Mrs. Portia hoped that in future, systems would be put in place to adequately protect the child while they sought redress at the law courts and not to be exposed unnecessarily.
She asked the Ghana Police to be a friend to children to teach them to understand the rights they have when it comes to certain challenges with the law.
The Metro Director of Eduction, Mrs. Bernice Ofori, in a keynote address, observed that children were the future leaders of the nation therefore the need to prepare them adequately for the future by improving the quality of teaching and learning in Ghana.
In that light, Mrs. Ofori indicated Government’s efforts to gradually phace out the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), “Changing the terminal point of our basic education from BECE to the West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE). This is to prepare our future citizens to face the changing trends in our world today.”
She prayed that efforts of the Ghana Government and other bodies “would further advance the cause of the African child such that challenges of poverty, malnutrition, child labour, etc. that still plague our continent would be brought to the barest minimum because we would have empowered these children to build a better tomorrow for themselves and generations yet unborn.”
Mr Joseph Koto, Presiding Member (PM), Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), in a short interaction with the children, informed that, “Ghana was at a point where we need to safeguard our children, because the system we are seeing now could make our children go wayward if care was not taken.”
He advised relevant authorities to clamp down on the numerous soccer bets across the country and rid the youth of dangerous habits like smoking, etc. which could destroy their future.
The Unit Head, Tema Social Welfare and Community Development, Madam Mohammed Issah Mutia, informed that children should know their rights and responsibility so they could ask for support when those rights were curtailed.
She asked for more resources in order for her department to be able to reach out to many young people with the awareness they needed to stand for their rights at all times.
The International Day of the African child was instituted to remember the many South African children who were killed and wounded in 1976 in what was known as the soweto uprising.
They demonstrated against the apartheid government, demanding for scraping of the Bantu system of education constructed for the black majority.
IDAY is a global institution in many countries. IDAY Ghana is made up of 31 coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which include Dream Hands, Abibiman Foundation, Abibinsroma Foundation.
GNA