Protecting, promoting rights of child

“There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children,” so says one of Ghana’s revered sons, the late Kofi Annan.

As the world marks Children’s Day and 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the needs of the child and national efforts to reach children at risk of being left behind will come to the fore.

Children, not only in Ghana but all over the globe, have every reason to celebrate as the world marks this important milestone geared towards their progress, development, and well-being.

Although efforts to help transform children’s lives around the world have seen some progress, while some specific successes have also been chalked up in Ghana, in terms of providing every child the right to life, human dignity, respect, leisure, liberty, health, education and shelter, many more still remains to be done, as not every child gets to enjoy a full childhood, while some challenges still persist which require urgent attention.

While Ghana was at the forefront of the push to formally adopt this inherent dignity and principles, not only introducing legislation to enforce the rights but also incorporating them into the Constitution, the country is struggling to enforce them at the grass-roots level.

There still exist disparities between the haves and have nots, especially vulnerable children, including those with disabilities.

Too many children with special needs face serious stigma and discrimination as soon as they are born. Indeed, many children with disabilities are almost always not sent to school and the exclusive breastfeeding rate for all babies from zero to six months has been declining.

There is also the issue of violence against children, especially girls. One cannot discount the problems associated with sexual violence.

The question of corporal punishment in schools also comes to mind as we mark the day of the child.

Many parts of our environment are generally not safe for the proper upbringing of our children. On faecal matter, many of our children consume a lot of contaminated water.

Twenty-eight per cent of children in Ghana live in poverty, while studies also show that too many children continue to be exploited in the agricultural sector, including the cocoa and the fisheries sub-sectors.

All these challenges affect the proper upbringing of the child.

So it is everybody’s business to pay special attention to the needs and proper upbringing of the child. Fortunately, we do have many policies and statutes, but their implementation has been lacking. That seems to be our sad story.

To protect and promote the rights of children, the support system should be in place, and all stakeholders, notably the government and caregivers, including mothers, teachers, communities, etc, must all get involved in this enterprise of providing the needs of the child.

Failure to do this will ultimately lead to the nation losing its future leaders. Anything short of that will also lead to our children becoming destitute, while poverty levels will keep rising.

As we mark the day for the child, caregivers and governments must renew their commitment to children and take action for child rights now, once and for all.

An adult, it is said, is a child who has survived, and so every effort must be made to ensure that we provide the needed opportunity to aid children’s growth.

Committing ourselves to make sure every child enjoys every right must be everyone’s concern.

As soon as the child survives, he or she thrives.