Comply with Children's Act - FIDA

The International Federation of Women Lawyers has urged the adult community to comply with the Children's Act of 1998, which seek to protect their right in society.

"The law imposes a duty on every parent and also any person who is legally liable to maintain a child, to supply that child with the necessaries of health, life, education and reasonable shelter or accommodation," Ms Gloria Ofori-Buadu, FIDA Executive Director stated.

Ms Ofori-Buadu told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on the commemoration of the African Union day of the African Child, that society needs to study, understand and recognise the right of Children, which "must be respected".

The then OAU, declared June 16 every year in remembrance of the plight of African children, many of whom were massacred on the same day in 1976 in South Africa as they demonstrated against the injustices of the former apartheid regime.

"As we endeavour to ensure that the massacre never occurred in the history of humanity, it is equally important that the daily abuse, neglect and suffering of the child is eliminated", she said.

According to her, the injustice of the time that led the children to demonstrate culminating in their untimely death is still with us in different forms through perpetuation of their rights, child slavery and labour.

Ms. Ofori-Buadu urged African Leaders to fight for the right of the African Child and also ensure that all child soldiers on the continent are free, "for mothers would no longer sit down for innocent children to be used for selfish interest the few."

FIDA through the support of the German Technical Co-operation would soon launch a book, "The right of the Ghanaian child", which is the simplification of the Children's Act 560 and the Criminal Code Amendment Act 554.

The book seeks to eliminate as far as possible, all legal technical language so as to make the laws understandable to all sections of the reading public, adding that they are not meant for lawyers or as the basis for legal argument in court.

Highlights of the book include; treatment of the disabled child, right to express an opinion, protection from torture and degrading treatment, forced betrothals and marriages and penalty for contravention.

Others are the role of the district assembly and the Department of Social Welfare, the duty of individuals, children in need of care and protection, children right under intestate succession law, the child and the social security laws and the right to parental property.