Ga West Municipality assuming notoriety for defilement cases

Accra, June 3, GNA - Dr J. Dekyi Clayman, Medical Superintendent of Ga West Municipal Hospital, on

Wednesday expressed concern about the increasing defilement, rape and physical abuses in the area. "Within the past four months, I have witnessed 22 defilement, rape and physical abuses. "Thirty-three per cent of eye injuries caused to women are due to slaps from supposed sweethearts," Dr

Clayman said at the begin of a two-day policy advocacy forum on Domestic Violence Act in Accra. He described domestic violence as a silent malignant and public health hazard that needed to be treated

with urgency. Dr Clayman however noted that lack of a Legislative Instrument (LI) for the law to be made operational

hindered its implementation three years after the passage. He said lack of the LI made it difficult and sometimes discouraging for even the highly sensitised health

worker or medical practitioner to give his or her maximum best in assisting victims of domestic violence. He therefore; called on the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, Attorney General's Department,

Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to collaborate to ensure the quick passage of the LI. Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs outlined some critical activities

which were outstanding in the implementation of the Act. They include development of training manuals for service providers - police, health, judiciary, and social

workers; establishment of shelters for victims, finalisation of the LI on the Act, development of inter and

intra agency protocols and development of a referral form for victims and survivors to hospital. Mrs Azumah-Mensah noted the need to engage and train professionals, counsellors, clinical psychologists

and Alternative Dispute Resolution experts. Mrs Adwoa Kwateng-Kluviste, Country Director, Actionaid, said lack of the LI was a major hindrance to

the full implementation of the Act and called for collaborative efforts to fast track it. Issues discussed at the forum include: "Access to justice and the Need for Subsidiary legislation,"

"Working without the legislative instrument; the Domestic Violence Victim Challenge," and "The legislative

instrument of the Domestic Violence Act, the way forward".