Tema CHRAJ receives 101 complaints

Kpone, Oct. 30, GNA - The Tema Sub-regional Office of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says it has received 101 complaints by end of September, this year as against 77 complaints in 2005.

Human rights abuses recorded the highest number of cases with 36 complaints while labour related incidents followed with 36 cases. Property related cases had twelve recorded whiles 18 were for others. This was contained in a statement signed by its Director, Ms Mercy Mensah and released to the press at an interactive public education programme at Kpone, near Tema on Monday.

It said 29 out of the cases for this year, has been closed while 33 complaints carried over from previous year were also closed. According to the statement, 36 out of the complaints have been settled by the Commission, two were decided on merit without hearing, five were referred to other jurisdiction and two were rejected. Those rejected for lack of jurisdiction were four, six were dismissed for lack of prosecution, three were withdrawn by complainants while four were transferred to other registries.

The aim of the interactive programme was for the Commission to interact with the people to know some of their problems and to educate them on some of their rights.

Ms Mensah said the Commission receives a lot of complaints from women being maltreated after the death of their husbands and stressed the need for women to be educated on the Intestate succession law. She regretted that in spite of the Capitation Grant and other programmes being implemented by the Government, some parents still refused to send their children to school.

She called for stiffer punishments for parents who exploit their children by hiring them for fees instead of enrolling them in schools. The Senior Investigator of the Commission, Mrs Florence Lamptey-Okosso, in a talk on child labour and child maintenance disclosed that feasibility studies carried out by the Commission indicated that child neglect and maintenance was on the increase in the area.