By Bertha Badu-Agyei
Accra, June 25, GNA – Abantu for Development, an international women focused organisation, has held a meeting with members of the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition and the Women’s Manifesto Coalition to set the tone for advocacy on the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill.
Key objectives of the meeting, geared towards the 2024 election, were to strategically develop approaches on getting the bill to be tabled for the Second Reading in Parliament for its eventual passage into law to enhance women’s representation in the House.
The meeting was part of a project being implemented by Abantu, with support from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), to strengthen activism for the passage of the bill.
It was on the theme: “Enhancing Movement and Building Efforts for the Passage of Ghana’s Affirmative Action Bill into Law.”
The work of developing the draft Affirmative Action Bill by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection started some 11 years ago, preceded by years of advocacy by civil society groups.
Currently, the bill is before the Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children for its consideration and report, after which it would be tabled for a second reading.
Mrs Hamida Harrison, the Resource and Mobilization Coordinator of Abantu, recalled that the bill was laid on October 31, 2023, under the certificate of urgency, but was not passed, saying: “Processes leading to the passage of Ghana’s Affirmative Action law has been slow.”
She said it was worrying that even though the demands of the bill were supported by international conventions and protocols and political promises of governments, the bill was still not passed into law.
That, she said, called for the strategic advocacy on the way forward in getting it passed into law as soon as possible and specifically for the 2024 elections.
Mrs Sheila Minkah-Premo, the Convenor of the Affirmative Action Coalition, said the imbalance in Ghana’s key decision-making spaces reveal clearly that unless an Affirmative Action law was enacted, there would continue to be low participation of women in governance and leadership and the marginalization of women would widen.
Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution prohibits discrimination because of gender except for Article 17(4), which states that: “Nothing in this article shall prevent Parliament from enacting laws, which are reasonably necessary to provide for implementation of policies and programmes aimed at addressing social, economic or educational imbalance in the society.”
She said as the 2024 general election approached, advocacy efforts must be intensified to ensure that the bill did not delay in Parliament and called on all stakeholders to get on board to create a widespread demand for the passage of the bill.
GNA