Tolon (N/R), July 23, GNA – The Pan-African Organisation for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children (PAORP-VWC), a Northern Region- based Non-Governmental Organisation, has schooled stakeholders in the Tolon District on laws and policies protecting children from early childhood and forced marriages.
They were taken through some international and local laws and policies on children’s rights and the roles of decentralised departments and agencies, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as well as NGOs in eradicating child early and forced marriages in the district.
This formed part of the PAORP-VWC’s three-year project, dubbed: “Promotion of Protection against Child Trafficking and Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Northern Ghana”.
It is being implemented in Tolon, Kumbungu, Gushegu, Zabzugu and Tatale districts, with funding support from KiRA Germany.
Participants were drawn from the Tolon District Assembly, traditional leaders, community child protection committees, Ghana Education Service, Department of Social Welfare, Ghana Private Road transport Union, Ghana Police Service, and other interest groups.
Hajia Alima Sagito Saeed, the Executive Director for Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA), who facilitated the engagement, touched on the Children’s Act, 1998 of the 1992 Constitution, explained that it provided for the rights of children and protected them from all forms of abuses, including; forced and early marriages and trafficking.
“Every child has the right to life, dignity, respect, leisure, liberty, health, education and improved well-being from his or her parents”, she said.
She called for stakeholders to ensure that by-laws that dealt with child rights, enacted by the Tolon District Assembly were strictly implemented to combat the menace in the area.
Madam Mary Agiiba, Tolon District Project Officer of PAORP-VWC, advised parents to take responsibilities of their children, saying,“parents should provide basic needs for their children and ensure cordial relationship between them and the children so that the children could have confidence to freely say anything that affected their welfare”.
Some of the participants observed that some laws on combating child marriages and child trafficking were not strictly enforced, and called on law enforcement agencies and other relevant stakeholders to strictly put into force these laws to help end the menace in the district.
GNA