Wa, January 28, GNA – Mr. Alhassan A. Rauf, the Jirapa Municipal Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), in the Upper West Region, has called for victims of sexual and gender-based violence to be bold to report to the police.
They should not keep any such abuse to themselves and silently suffer but seek justice.
He was speaking at a forum organized by the Africa Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development (AfCHuRSD), a non-governmental Organisation (NGO) for students of the Wa School for the Deaf and Dumb and the Wa School for the Blind to educate them on issues of sexual and gender-based violence in schools.
Mr. Rauf said despite the existence of state institutions and laws to protect women and children many of them continued to suffer all forms of in the communities and suffering in silence.
That needed to change through increased public education to help victims of sexual and gender-based violence to report to the appropriate state institutions to get the offenders punished.
“Despite the existence of these constitutionally mandated institutions in the regions, which are required to seek social justice for victims many are languishing in silence because of the fear of being tagged as litigants by community members.”
Madam Janet Kpan, the Upper West Regional Girls Education Officer, called on school authorities to make the school environment safe and conducive for quality teaching and learning for students.
She appealed to teachers to consider themselves as role models and instill discipline and patriotism in their students.
GNA