Special budget to fund children activities advocated

Cape Coast, Dec. 6, GNA -Participants at a forum to disseminate the supplementary report and summary records by the UN committee on the rights of the child, in Cape Coast, on Wednesday advocated for the provision of a special budget allocation to cater for the needs of children in the country.

They said this would complement what the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, (MOWCA), districts assemblies and the multi-sectoral committee for children's protection, were currently doing for children in the country.

The forum which was organized by the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC) to inform and collate views of stakeholders on the '41st session of Committee on the rights of the child', was attended by assembly members, district planning officers, health workers, NGOs and school children from Cape Coast.

Ghana was the first country to ratify the 1992 Convention on the rights of the child, and has since sent three reports on the issue to the United Nations.

The participants also stressed the need for the establishment of child panels in the various district assemblies and to ensure that they are made functional, since some panels already in place have been idle. They tasked the assemblies to endeavour to implement all laws and by-laws on the protection of children, and expressed concern about sexual exploitation of children in the region, especially in Cape Coast and Elmina and called for intensive night patrols to curb the situation.

Mrs Marilyn Amponsah-Annan, a director at the MOWCA, who took the participants through the report, said it commended Ghana for adopting laws aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of the child such as the children's act (Act 560), amendment of the criminal code, juvenile justice Act (Act653) and the International Labour organization (ILO) convention No. 182.

She said the report, however recommended to the country among others, effectively ensure the implementation of legislation pertaining to children's welfare, and the complete abolition of corporal punishment which it observed "is still widely practiced in society" and its acceptance as a form of discipline gives cause for serious concern. Mrs Amponsah-Annan, said the country is supposed to send a fourth report in September 2012, and expressed the hope that the recommendations would be addressed before the next report is ready. Mr Divine Opare, Central Regional director of the GNCC in his welcoming address that a multi-sectoral committee on child protection, district child protection committees and early childhood care and development committees, are all fully in place in the region to oversee issues affecting children.

He however, regretted that his outfit was inadequately resourced and found it difficult to effectively and efficiently discharge its duties.