‘Constitution does not permit child marriage’

A survey by the Organisation of Parliamentarians for Global Action, Ghana has revealed that Ghana is one of the countries with the highest child marriage prevalence rates globally.

The Ghana Demographic Health Survey in 2008 also revealed that 25 per cent of married women between the ages of 20 and 25 were married or were in a union before attaining the age of 18.

Again, available statistics also indicate that one out of three girls in developing areas of the world were married before reaching the age of 18 and an estimated one in nine girls were also married before age 15 in developing countries.

Addressing a two-day workshop organised by the Sunyani Municipal Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Sunyani on the theme, “Stop Child Early/Forced Marriages Now”, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Kwasi Oppong Ababio, emphasised that the Constitution of Ghana did not permit child marriage.

He said research had shown that such marriages were done under duress, emphasising that they were usually implemented without the consent or free will of either both parties or one of them.

The workshop was attended by 40 participants drawn from Sunyani municipality and Sunyani West District Assembly. They were drawn from the traditional council, the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Community Development.

Others were assembly members, representatives from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Office of the Chief Imam, the Department of Children, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the media.

Stakeholders

The MCE, therefore, urged stakeholders responsible for ensuring the end of the canker to act now to save the nation from that practice.

Mr Ababio noted that the consequences of early/child and forced marriages were enormous, and buttressed his point with the UNICEF’s report of 2009 on the ‘State of the World’s Children’ which stated that maternal deaths related to pregnancy and children were an important component of the death of girls aged 15-19 worldwide, accounting for 70,000 deaths each year.

He said some of the root causes of forced and early/child marriages included poverty, gender inequalities, traditions that were gender bias, religion and parental irresponsibility.

Mr Ababio, therefore, called for not only the promulgation of strict laws against the canker but also equipping and monitoring those responsible for ensuring that the laws enforced accordingly.

Civil society organisations

The MCE urged civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media to also contribute their quota to intensify their advocacy role to ensure the stoppage of the menace in society.

Mr Ababio was optimistic that by the end of the two-day meeting, stakeholders would come up with better and improved strategies to fight this inhuman practice and promote child rights and development in the country.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr Issah Nasagri, noted that the content of the workshop was a reflection of happenings in the region, adding that violation of human dignity boiled down to criminality.

He stated that projecting human dignity was the responsibility of all human beings, and, therefore, urged participants to assist in identifying ways of halting such bad cultural practices in those parts of the region which were noted for them.

Mr Nasagri announced that his outfit had identified areas in the region where child/early and forced marriages were common, and promised that people in those communities would be educated to change for the better through similar educational campaigns and workshops.— GNA