Policy to protect child rights launched

A national child and family welfare policy (CFWP) designed to protect the rights of children has been launched in Accra.
Among others, the policy will ensure that child and family welfare programmes and activities are designed to effectively prevent and protect children from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

It will also ensure effective coordination of child and family welfare services at all levels.

Launching the policy in Accra yesterday, the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, said charting a new policy direction for children had become necessary as a result of challenges that children, parents, caregivers and state institutions responsible for children continued to face.

He said mapping and research projects in 2010 and 2014, respectively, revealed that while Ghana had adequate laws and policies on children, the laws worked in a disjointed and uncoordinated fashion, thereby achieving inadequate results.

To that end, he said, children continued to experience abuse, violence and exploitation and had recourse to a protection system that only responded after they had suffered some harm.

“Our child protection system was not very effective in preventing these negative consequences that children suffered,” he said, adding that it had become imperative that “we take urgent steps to review the entire child protection system and put in place one that is fit for Ghana and designed to be more proactive in preventing child abuse and exploitation”.

Objectives

The policy will also empower children and families to better understand abusive situations and make choices to prevent and respond to situations of risk.

Another objective will be to help build the capacity of institutions and service providers to ensure quality services for children and families in urban and rural areas.

It will work at reforming existing laws and policies to conform to the new vision for child and family welfare.

Another objective of the policy is to ensure the provision of adequate resources for the functioning of child and family welfare services at all levels.

The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, said child protection and the realisation of the rights and welfare of children were priorities of the government.

She said under the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda II (GSGDA II), child development and protection were some of the key focus areas under human development, productivity and decent work.

Nana Oye said among strategies for achieving that key focus was the formulation and implementation of policies and appropriate programmes to enhance child protection and development.

Other perspectives

The UNICEF Deputy Representative, Ms Rushnan Murtaza, described the policy as extraordinary because it recognised the role of the immediate structures such as families, communities and national institutions.

“It is extraordinary because it ensures that the promise we make to newborn babies when they arrive into this world — the promise of care, protection and security — does not become a mirage as they move towards adolescence and adulthood,” she added.

A representative of children, Miss Josephine Dante from the Akropong School for the Blind, expressed the hope that the policy would provide equal opportunities for all children, including the challenged and vulnerable in society.

She appealed to the state to ensure that adequate funds and other required resources were provided for the smooth implementation of the policy.

A representative of civil society groups, Barima Akwasi Amankwaah, called on stakeholders to ensure that the policy is implemented to the fullest.

Writer's email:
rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh