Widows call for LI on Domestic Violence Act

This year’s International Widows Day has been marked in Bolgatanga with a call on government to enact the legislative instrument on Domestic Violence Act to eliminate violence against women.

The Widows Network of Upper East Region made the call in a resolution issued and read by Madam Silvia Adabuga Wakem, a representative of the Network on Saturday at Bolgatanga.

According to the Widows majority of them suffered a lot of maltreatment including stripping naked, forced confinement, widowhood inheritance and food taboos during the death of their late husbands.

They indicated that these negative cultural practices are meted out to them by their late husbands relatives and expressed optimism that when the legislative instrument on Domestic Violence Act is passed into law, it would protect them from the trauma they often went through.

Whilst commending some chiefs of some traditional areas including Tengzuk, Sakoti, Duusi, Bongo , Winkongo and Kongo for banning some of the negative cultural practices such as stripping of widows during widowhood rites, they expressed regret about the practice deeply rooted in some of the communities in the Region particularly in the Builsa District.

The resolution therefore called on the Regional House of Chiefs to impress upon Chiefs in such traditional areas where the practice was rift to ban them since they violated the fundamental human rights of the widows.

The resolution also called on the Media practitioners and owners to devote much of their space and time to talk on issues affecting widows so as to inform policy makers and implementers to act on them.

Mrs Betty Ayagba, National Director of the Widows and Orphans Movement indicated that a research conducted in the Talensi Nabdam District revealed that about 139 children of widows have dropped out of school, many denied access to the farmlands of their late husbands and forceful remarriages of majority of them to their late husbands relatives against their will.

Mr. Edmond Alagpulinsa, a Senior Principal Investigator of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice indicated that, the 1992 constitution frown upon negative cultural practices and taboos that infringes on the fundamental human rights of the individual, of which widows are not exempted.

He entreated widows not to hesitate to report all forms maltreatment meted out to them by late families relatives which constituted violation of human rights to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

The Paramount Chief of the Sakoti Traditional Area, Naba Sigri Bewong, stressed the need for CHRAJ to visit all the 17 paramountcies in the region to educate community members on the law that infringes on human rights since majority of the communities were ignorant about them.

Mr. Gregory Dery, Programme Manager of ActionAid Ghana, expressed worry about the trend of the negative culture and stressed the need for the traditional rulers to embark upon vigorous campaigns in their respective communities to stop the practice.

He warned families who maltreated widows that the law would not hesitate to deal drastically with them if they continued to make them suffer.

In a speech read for him, the Upper East Region Minister Mr. Mark Woyongo bemoaned the spate of the negative cultural practices in the Region which affected human dignity and reiterated the need for Traditional Rulers to abolish such cultural practices.

The Occasion which was under the theme “Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities and Progress for All” was organised by the Widows and Orphans Movement and sponsored by ActionAid Ghana.

It attracted traditional rulers, NGOs, Government Departments, Widows, the Media, Assembly Members among others.**