Kabral advises journalists to treat children’s rights issues as priority

A Senior Media Specialist on Wednesday advised journalists to treat issues of children’s rights as a year-long priority, stressing that make shift reportage on child labour was a bane to sustainable efforts towards eliminating the menace.

Mr. Kabral Blay-Amihere, Chairman of National Media Commission gave the advice at the press launch of 2012 World Day Against Child Labour, organised in Accra on the theme: “Human Rights and Social Justice, Let’s End Child Labour.”

It was organised by Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (MESW), in collaboration with Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).

Other partners were International Labour Organisation (ILO) and United Nations Children’s Fund,

Mr. Blay-Amihere urged journalists to devote adequate air time and space to child labour issues.

Mr. Ransford Tetteh, President of GJA, underscored the crucial contributions of the media in helping eliminate worst forms of child labour by the 2016 deadline.

He called on government and policy makers to implement economic and social intervention measures to ensure poverty alleviation.

Mr. Stephen Mc Clelland, Chief Technical Adviser of ILO, expressed optimism that the fight to eliminate worst forms of child labour would soon be won.

He said June 12, every year, had been dedicated to commemorate World Day Against Child Labour.

Mrs Elioenai Abena Adu-Labi, Director of Finance and Administration at MESW, called on journalists to re-engage themselves to create a more vigorous and sustained momentum in their coverage of issues regarding child labour.

“Indeed, I am submitting this special appeal in view of our natural awareness that any phenomenon regarding any child, anywhere, is a human rights issue, which we must collectively address and fight as a matter of social justice,” she said.

Mrs Adu-Labi said, “The only way to protect the natural evolutionary process is to engage stakeholdership activities of this nature through institutional measures against any system that seeks to promote human suffering, deprivation and all forms of anti-social activities that suppresses, dehumanize, and prevent young people, particularly children, from living and enjoying normal life.”**