By Regina Benneh
Sunyani (Bono), April 15, GNA – Mr Gawusu Abdul-Wadood, the Bono Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has urged the media to spotlight and expose perpetrators of child labour for the necessary action to be taken against them.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, on the sidelines of a media training workshop at Abesim, near Sunyani, he urged the media not to be compromised or shield perpetrators and cases of child labour.
“The media shouldn’t compromise on anything to shield child labour,” Mr Abdul-Wadood advised, saying that “naming and shaming’ perpetrators would greatly combat the menace.
The ActionAid Ghana (AAG), a non-government organisation (NGO) organised the training to enlighten the media about a child labour project the NGO is undertaking in cocoa growing communities in some districts in the Bono and Ahafo Regions and to strengthen their capacity to report responsibly.
Mr Abdul-Wadood noted that child labour and exploitation were having a devastating consequence on the development of children.
“Many people are unaware of their rights, allowing others to abuse and trample on their fundamental freedoms,” the CHRAJ Bono Regional Director said, and pointed out that the media had a critical role in stemming the menace.
“Please, intensify public sensitisation on human rights issues,” he urged.
Earlier, Mr Kwame Afram Denkyiraa, the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Programmes Officer of the AAG, noted that child labour affected children physically and psychologically and deprived them of their education.
He said the AAG required the media’s collaboration to tackle the problem, explaining that the project was being implemented in Asutifi North and Asutifi South in the Ahafo, as well as Dormaa Central Municipality and Dormaa West in the Bono Regions.
The “Advancing Rights and Combatting Child Labour in Cocoa Value Chains in Ghana (ARCCLG)”, project aims at strengthening community and institutional capacity to prevent child labour in the cocoa-growing communities.
Mr Leonard Amengo, a renowned media practitioner who was a facilitator took the 23 media practitioners through the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA)’s Code of Conduct, urging them to be sensitive and also uphold high ethical standards in reporting on child labour.
He cautioned the media against the practice of exposing children’s identities that turned to stigmatise them in their reportage.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Regina Benneh Siaw
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