PRESS STATEMENT ON ALLEGED GANG RAPE OF FOUR GIRLS

Following the horrid news report on the alleged rape of girls in Nalerigu, in the northern parts of Ghana by some soldiers, NETRIGHT issued a statement to the press about these atrocities. Permission has been sought to share the press statement on this blog. Please read below:



NETWORK FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN GHANA (NETRIGHT)

C/O Third World Network-Africa
P. O. Box 19452, Accra-North
Tel: 233 21 511189/500419/503669
Fax: 233 21 511188
Email: netright@twnafrica.org
Mobilising for Women’s Rights in Ghana

STATEMENT TO THE PRESS ON ALLEGED GANG RAPE OF FOUR GIRLS

The Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) is deeply disturbed by the alleged gang rape of four girls, aged between 15 and 17 at Nalerigu in the Northern Region by a number of solders and policemen who are said to have been deployed there to quell a public disorder. The story as reported on Joy FM on November 25, 2009 and also in the Daily Guide of November 26, 2009 comes in the wake of several other stories in the media about women and girls who have been subjected to a wide range of sexual violence including gang rape, beatings, torture with the possible threat of HIV infection. Such victims have sustained severe physical and emotional trauma and humiliation. Clearly we are living through a plague of brutal violence directed at women and girls with rape being used as a weapon of intimidation to instill fear in women and girls, in our families and our communities.

NETRIGHT is therefore using this platform to condemn this pattern of horrendous rape because violence is a wrong choice and as the evidence shows, sexual violence can transmit the AIDS virus. Thus for the girls who have suffered this brutal and unacceptable treatment, there is a double jeopardy: first they have been raped, and then there is the possibility of their contracting HIV/AIDS. What this pattern of behaviour shows is that violence against women and girls continue unabated in our country as we hear a story of rape or defilement almost every day. In this latest wave of violence, what is even more worrying is the link of rape with torture. In this particular story, one of the girls has alleged that she was tortured while being raped. Thus, the reality of this situation is that the girls – the victims – are definitely terrified, in tears, with broken relationships, liable to be stigmatized in their communities, and the attendant ill- health and psychological damage to them is extensive and irreparable.
The men who have committed this crime belong in prison. But NETRIGHT is concerned that vested interests will once again ensure the denial of justice to these young girls in the attempt to protect the perpetrators who are alleged to belong to powerful institutions such as the military and the police. We therefore urge civil society and women’s groups to condemn this rape and to demand justice.

We therefore demand:
* The safety and security of the girls and their families to be ensured;
* The victims and their families be allowed to exercise their fundamental rights of legal counsel of their own choosing in all proceedings related to the case;
* To be provided all medical care required for their well-being
* To interact freely with women’s rights and human rights organisations
* An inquiry to be held to establish why the military and the police went to that particular house where the girls live
* All proceedings to be made transparent, allowing observers from women’s rights and human rights organisations and doctors’ associations;
* The names of the perpetrators be made public and those of the victims protected;
* Those who obstruct justice to be apprehended and prosecuted under the law.

NETRIGHT insists that the military and the police are supposed to protect women and men in the society. However in many situations such as this, gender-based violence is overlooked, often due to the lack of implementation of existing legislation or by its being seen as a private matter. Implementation and enforcement of legislation is vital but it is also necessary to put a stop to laws that emphasise family reunification over the rights of women and girls. The government has a responsibility to intervene when there is systematic and widespread gender-based violence. By identifying violence against women as a national security threat, it increases the chances of preventing wider conflicts at an early stage.

NETRIGHT also has the conviction that gender-equal participation at all levels of society is key in order to assure women and girls’ security. We would therefore like to reaffirm our support for the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on Women, Peace and Security, and Ghana’s Domestic Violence Law (Act 732) and call for their full and immediate implementation to benefit women and girls.

Issued this day, November 27, 2009 at Accra.

Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin
Convenor

Poor Economy gives grounds for domestic violence

Poor Economy gives grounds for domestic violence

Daily Graphic, Saturday, 28th November, 2009; Page 19, (News)
Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

The Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Emile Francis Short, has noted tat the resent economic situation in the country is fertile ground for perpetrating domestic violence.

“the current economic situation exerts pressure that can culminate in an explosive situation in the average home and lead to gender-based violence, with the least provocation serving as the last straw,” he said.

Mr Short said this at a ceremony orgainsed by the Ghana Human Rights NGOs Forum in Accra to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which forms part of activities marking 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence (GBV).

The 16 days of Activism is celebrated internationally from November 25 to December 10 every year as part of efforts to end GBV across the world.

According to the CHRAJ Commissioner, there was need to educate the general public right down to the grass roots in order to inculcate attitudes acknowledging the dignity and worth of women.

He also called for the strengthening of institutional mechanisms so that women and girls could reports acts of violence against them in a safe and confidential environment, free from fear of penalties or retaliation, and file charges.

Mr Short also said that there was need to disseminate information on the assistance available to women and families who were victims of violence as well as develop programmes and procedures to educate and raise awareness of acts of violence against women that constituted a crimes and a violation of the human rights of women.

According to him, as a way of helping curb domestic violence, CHRAJ had established a specialized Women and Children’s Unit at its headquarters where it received and processed a myriad of cases that impinged directly on the rights of women and children.

He said in 2007, the commission received 1, 923 cases, as against 1,684 in 2008, with complaints in respect of wife battery standing at 66 in 2007 and 145 in 2008, adding that the situation was a clear indication that issues of violence against women were on the increase in the country.

The Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Densua, in her keynote address, said the campaign to end GBV was a collective responsibility that required concerted efforts from all.

She said the ministry was ready to collaborate with all NGOs, parliamentarians and institutions to help curb GBV in the country.

A representative form the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Irene Oppong, in an address, said the unit handled 4,616 cases of domestic violence across the country.

Speaking on the criminal implications of domestic violence she called on the victims to ensure that they reported such cases early so that the evidence can be collected for prosecution.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, said her outfit would come up with its industrial policy and sector support programme in which the economic empowerment of women would be addressed.

The President of the Ghana Human Rights NGOs Forum, Mr Peter Osei Badu, in an address said it recognized the global economic crisis and it adverse effects on developing countries but added that it would be a human rights abuse when budgetry allocation for human rights institutions such as CHRAJ were cut down, saying that would affect their activities in the fight against domestic violence.

The Winners of the Popular Song Competition are:

1. Collins Amponsah a.k.a. Kwabena Quaku: As Long As You are a Woman

Kwabena Quaku with his guitar, during a video shoot. (Photo Credits: Akofa Anyidoho)


Kwabena Quaku receives his award from Prof. Kwesi Yankah, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana.
TVO Lamptey, Dennis Abeiku, Diana Hopeson, Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Takyiwaa Manuh, Nana Dansowaa Kena-Amoah and JH Nketia- Left to Right
(Photo Credits: Kwabena Danso)



2. Osei Korankye: Mmaa Moo
Diana Hopeson, President of MUSIGA, supported by Dennis Abeiku hand over Osei Koranye's award
(Photo Credits: Kwabena Danso)

Osei Korankye sings with his Seprewa and the band in the Background
(Photo Credits: Kwabena Danso)


3. Nana Kweku Antwi Asamoah a.k.a Born Africans: Equal Rights
Leslie Hammond supports Nana Dansowaa Kena-Amoah as she gives Born Africans his award.
(Photo Credits: Kwabena Danso)


Collins and the ladies at a video shoot
(Photo Credits: Akofa Anyidoho)

Left to Right: Takyiwaa Manuh (the Covenor of the West Africa Hub), Diana Hopeson (President of MUSIGA), Kwabena Quaku, Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo (co-lead reseracher for Chnaging Representations of Women in Popular Music Project).
(Photo Credits: Akofa Anyidoho)

*** CLICK ON EACH OF THE IMAGES TO VIEW A LARGER SIZE. More information & Pictures of the Song and Video Launch will be on the blog soon. Watch out for details soon.

Coming Soon!

POPULAR SONGS ON WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT: LAUNCH OF WINNING SONGS

COMING SOON!

WATCH THIS BLOG FOR FURTHER DETAILS!

Money allocated for gender equity hardly used

Money allocated for Gender Equity Hardly Used

Accra, Oct. 15, 2009 - GNA - A Research conducted by the Ghana Partnership Resource Review, a research group, has indicated that out of US$3.21 million allocated to the social protection sector, only US$390,000 was used for the intended purpose.

This meant that although key donors adopted a gender mainstreaming approach, it was difficult for them to concretely determine what impact their aid was having on Gender Equity (GE) in the country. Addressing participants attending a workshop organized on Thursday by the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, Ms Afua Ansre, National Programme Coordinator of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), attributed the lack of commitment to GE as one of the main reasons for the slow rate of development in the country.

She said Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB), if properly implemented, would bring tremendous improvement to the lives of women who constituted the bulk of the marginalized and the poor. Gender Responsive Budgeting represents a special type of policy-making that enables budgets or money allocation to become effective tools for advancing gender equity or to ensure that women participated fully or advanced in all sectors of society.

Ms Ansre called on the government to have to a detailed plan for women in the country and to ensure that requirements for the plan reflected in the nation's budget especially at the district level. "According to the Institute of Social, Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER), the least area of government investment in 2008 was in the area of agriculture, and that is where you find the poorest people of Ghana - women crop farmers," she added. The Coordinator bemoaned the high level of maternal and infant mortality in the country, the significant number of girls dropping out of school especially in the rural areas, and the abysmal number of women parliamentarians the nation has.

She intimated that UNIFEM was in the process of building teams of experts to help support the growing desire for GRB at the district and national levels.

Highlighting the importance of GRB, Mr Roland Mordey, Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), said this included the provision of feedback to the government on whether it was meeting the needs of the marginalized and the realization of women's rights. Mr Mordey said it had also been established that the good implementation of GRB led to real growth in the Gross Domestic product of any nation.

He said Ghana's experience on GRB started recently, adding that in 2008, MOWAC received cabinet approval to pilot the implementation of the GRB in the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. To this effect, MOWAC put in place all the needed requirements to ensure that next year, GRB would be implemented in the three ministries as well as all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies whereby they would allocate a percentage of their financial allocations to support gender programmes.

"To this effect, MOWAC in August 2009 organised a GRB training workshop for 16 selected MDAs including 45 participants from the budgeting and planning sections of the MDAs who were trained in Gender Concepts, Gender Analysis, and Budgeting Systems in the country," he said.

The workshop, which was under the theme "Making Local Level Budgeting More Gender Responsive", was attended by representatives from the Ministries and other civil society organizations.

Source: Ghana News Agency

How Nkrumah Empowered Women

How Nkrumah Empowered Women
Daily Graphic, Saturday, September 26, 2009, Page 32
Salome Donkor

The role of women in politics and other public offices is one of the burning governance issues, largely because of the perceived and acknowledged potential and contribution of women to governance.

A recent study by Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, on Women in Politics and Public Life indicated that there was ample evidence to substantiate the indispensable role women played in the prelude to independence an immediately after it.

The study revealed that role of women was evident in they support they gave to the main political party of the time, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), and it is also on recode that women traders were keen supporters of the CPP government and also offered financial assistance and supportive services.

Soon after the formation of the CPP in 1949, for instance some of them, notably Akua Asabea, stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts like Kofi Baako and Sacki Scheek as they toured the country and addressed large rallies to spread the message of ‘Independence Now’ for Ghana.

Hanna Cudjoe, for instance, did not only heroically rally the people behind the independence struggle, but also went a step ahead in establishing day care centres and day nurseries.

She worked extensively in the northern Ghana under the direction of Dr Nkrumah, who gave her the task of convincing women in certain parts of northern Ghana to discard some outmoded cultural [practices] in the area.

During the early period of the struggle in May 1951, the CPP appointed Hanna Cudjoe, Ama Nkrumah, Letitia Quaye and Sophia Doku as propaganda secretaries with the responsibilities of organizing the CPP Women’s League.

Under the League, the women were divided into subsections at branch and ward levels. They organized rallies, dances, picnics as strategies to mobilise more people for early independence delayed by the colonialists for about a century.

Hanna Cudjoe was the Head of the Ghana Women’s League, and in 1960, the Women’s League and the Ghana Federation of Women, led by Evelyn Amartefio were merged to form the Nation Council of Ghana Women (NCGW) to replace the women’s section of the CPP.

The women’s movement was inaugurated by Dr Nkrumah on September 10, 1960 as the only organization under which all Ghanaian women were to be organized to help achieve government post-independent political, social, economic and educational development of Ghana. The party leadership, therefore, institutionalised the initiative by making constitutional provisions for women’s league at the branch and ward levels as the main organising framework for women in the party. It was, therefore, not surprising that the party gave credit to women for the internal solidarity, cohesion and success of the CPP.

Mention could also be made of the role of Dr Mrs Letitia Obeng an educationist, and other women who were nurses, broadcasters, judgers and lawyers who became part and parcel of the independence struggle.

Though not visible like their male counterparts in the frontline, the female politicians, nonetheless, provided a vanguard force, rallying their families, communities, trade and various interest group s to join the struggle for national independence.

Allah-Mensah’s writing on ‘Women and Politics in Ghana 1993-2003,’ cited in a book titled “One Decade of Liberal State” and edited by Kwame Boafo-Arthur (2007), states that the action was largely responsible for the development of the women’s wing of the party and also for youth organisation. She records that women were efficient organisers who could bring thousands of people together for a rally at very short notice.

A paper written by Ms Joyce Rosalind Aryee, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, on the “Contribution of Women to Ghana’s Independence and Democratic Governance,” dated March 2007 and quoted in the study by Dr Allah-Mensah, pointed out that Dr Nkrumah’s political success was based on the foundation set for women by the CPP.

It said in 1949, many benevolent and mutual associations, credit unions and market voluntary groups sprang up and became staunch supporters of Dr Nkrumah and the CPP in general. It said those, though were not the forefront of the independence struggle, were involved in activities which were politically significant.

The contribution of women to the political struggle caught the eyes of the leadership of CPP and by May 1951, the party had appointed four women, namely Letitia Quaye, Sophia Doku, Hanna Cudjoe and Ama Nkrumah as press secretaries charged with the duty of organizing women.

In spite of the roles of women in the political struggle, there was no woman in Cabinet when Ghana attained republican status, but the contribution of women to Ghanaian politics after independence, resulting in the introduction of the Representation of the People (Women Members) Bill in 1960. The bill was passed and it received the Governor-general’s assent of June 16, 1960.

Through the act, 10 women were elected unopposed as Members of Parliament (MPs) in June 1960. They were Susana Al-Hassan, Ayanori Bukaru and Victoria Nyarko, all representing the Northern Region, Sophia Doku and Mary Korateng, Eastern Region and Regina Asamany, Volta Region.
The rest were Grace Ayensu and Christiana Wilmot, Western Region, Comfort ASamoah, Ashanti Region and Lucy Anim, Brong Ahafo. That made Ghana one of the first African countries to introduce a quota system for women.

In 1965, Dr Nkrumah appointed Madam Susana Al-Hassan as the Minister of Social Welfare and Community Development, while others were appointed as district commissioners.

Over the past five decades after Ghana’s independence, the representation of women in local and national level politics as well as in others areas of decision making indicated that there is still much to done to ensure an effective representation of women in politics and other equally important sectors.

Do pastors really have the cure for HIV/AIDS?

Commentary: Do pastors really have the cure for HIV/AIDS? Cultural beliefs and often times lack of funds prevent ordinary Ghanaians from seeking medical help when they get sick and for a long time. For some, it's much cheaper and easier to consult a pastor or a herbalists with often results in no recovery. The article below is an interesting read, especially with the current trend where pastors claim to have 'cures' for all kinds of diseases and their followers believe them. In most of such churches the majority of the followers and therefore, victims, are women.

‘My pastor said he’d healed me of HIV’
The Ghanaian Times, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, Page 7
Titania Kumeh

Akrong Seth’s pastor at church told him that he had cured him of HIV and then assured him it was not necessary to visit a clinic.

When Seth visted a doctor and was informed that he was still HIV positive, he called the physician a liar. “The pastor has cured me,” he said. “And I kept pumping into women.” He did not use condoms.

He attended the church for two years, and spent more than GH¢4,000 paying the pastor for various treatments. Seth finally confronted the pastor after his wife became infected with the virus. “When I told [the pastor] that I was HIV positive and my wife as positive, he (pastor) told me that foreign blood had come to me.”

It wasn’t until Seth witness the death of hundreds of people that he finally returned to his doctor to be placed on anti-retroviral drugs, which he has been using for five years. The 57-year-old has been infected with HIV for 17 years, and continues to live with his wife at Korle-Bu. His experience motivated him to campaign for HIV awareness. “In 1982, I was going around churches and villages telling them that HIV is real. If you follow the pastor, you will lose your life. Anyone who tells you that ‘I have a cure’ is a liar.”

Despite the high knowledge of how to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS infections, many Ghanaians continue to relay on traditional cultural beliefs to avoid the disease, according to UN officials. This misinformation and denial is killing people.

Esi Awotwi, National HIV/AIDS Programme Officer at the United Nation’s Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), says reducing the stigma associated with the illness, encouraging people to get tested and improving access to anti-retroviral medications and other HIV services are the primary ways of fighting the spread of HIV?AIDS in Ghana. She acknowledges that some cultural ideas and behaviours are impeding these remedies. “We will still have some people visiting herbalists, people still visiting prayers camps for a cure,” she says.

Gifty Torkunu, went to a church to get anointed for a cure when she was diagnosed with HIV six years ago. “I was given two bottles of anointed oil and I drank and I vomited and the pastor told me that I had vomited the virus,” Torkunu, 45, says. She repeated the practices five times, returning to the church for the treatments, before she learned of her HIV-positive status from a doctor, joined a support group and began to take conventional medicine.

“Because of my denial,” she says, “my son died four months ago after becoming infected through my breast milk.”

“The problem we have in this country is that we are God-fearing people,” Torkunu says. “Any problem we have to take it to God, so whatever pastors says, we do. Some people are convinced that if I pray or if I do this without the anti-retroviral drugs, you will be cured. But if God will cure me, it will surely come from above not from the pastor.”

She explained that traditionally in Ghana, people with HIV are thought to be bewitched. “they wouldn’t take you to the hospital. But if you don’t know your status, and think, ‘I don’t know, so I must be oaky,’ you are defeating yourself.”