Help govt to eradicate Child Slavery - President

Kumasi, April 20, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills, has called on Ghanaians to assist government in eradicating child slavery and trafficking in the country.

He said a lot of work had been done to promote children's rights by human rights agencies and organizations, grassroots groups, media, educators, global leaders and youth groups but more needed to be done to enforce children's rights in the country. President Mills made the call in a speech read on his behalf in Kumasi on Monday at the eighth annual Easter school for children. The event, which was organized by Child Rights International, a mon-governmental 0rganization (NGO), and sponsored by UNICEF, UNHCR and Stanbic Bank, attracted children from nine African countries. Speaking under the theme: "Growing Child Participation through Service Learning", the President said children were easy targets of exploitation because they were dependent on adults and social institutions for their development and usually unaware of their rights and unable to voice their concerns.
He explained that they were forced to work in factories, backrooms, on the street and in sex trade while others were even sold as slaves or drafted to fight in wars. President Mills said violation of children's rights was pervasive throughout many countries and fuelled struggling economies and that exploitation of children was not restricted to the public sphere. He said that maltreatments against children where in their own homes, where high percentage of abuse including sexual, physical, emotional or psychological took place. In an address read on her behalf, the Minister for Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), Madam Akua Sena Dansua said the concept of child participation in services was basic to modern day governance that sought to ensure the protection and dignity of children. She stated that a significant way of growing child participation was through service learning that was to promote the participation of the children in services in their communities.
"Helping Children to better understand the concept of child rights, training students to become child rights activist and advocates when they find themselves in leadership positions in future will be meaningless if we do not engage them in decisions that directly affect them today", Madame Dansua said.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, in an address read for him, promised that chiefs would assist in eliminating any impediment to child participation in national development. He emphasized that children were the future managers of the country and they should be properly developed. Mr. Bright Appiah, Executive Director of Child Rights International, Ghana, explained that the Easter school for children provided a platform for them to discuss and share their understanding, thinking and to make suggestions to national issues. "It is part of our work plan for the year to help materialize the child protection policies of government and international partners such as UNICEF and PLAN Ghana" he said. Mr. Appiah appealed to the government and other stakeholders to help interpret the law on child labour, adoption, maintenance and rehabilitation of children and when they are in contact with the law.