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General News of Friday, 6 December 2019

Source: GNA

High Court Judges attend conference on child protection

High Court High Court

Accra, Dec. 4, GNA - Some selected High Court Judges have attended a conference on the protection of and children and proper care giving in the course of their duties.

The conference was organised by Ghana Without Orphans (GWO) with support from Role UK, rule and law expertise, SFAC, UKaid, Bethany Christian Services and the Judicial Training Institute.

Apart from the judges, key heads of the Social Welfare, among other stakeholders attended the two-day event that would also train judges in the lower courts.

The aim of the Conference, Mrs Susanna Afutu, member of GWO said sought to focus on the legal and judicial system in place for the welfare for children.

She said Ghana had the policies and laws for children protection such as the Interstate Succession Law, Matrimonial Clauses Act, Adoption Regulation and other issues pertaining to child protection, but lacked effective implementation.

“Ghana has beautiful laws, but actualisation of the laws is another issue to be looked at so we want to identify the lapses in the system as far as practice of the system is concern”.

Also a lecturer at the Central University College School of Law, Mrs Afutu said the workshop would seek to actualise those laws and a judicial system into place for their welfare.

She said GWO is a Network of churches and other individuals and organisations who were interested in removing orphans from orphanages and ensuring they thrived in a safe environment.

GWO together with World Without Orphans with support from Role UK held a legal conference on good practices in the judicial process of protection and care for the child in Ghana.

Participants would identify challenges facing the Court in terms of ensuring child safety and come up with best solutions and appreciate structures in place for child protection.

The Conference would come up with a document on highlighted areas of challenges to be forwarded to the judicial service, Chief Justice’s office and office of reforms at the judicial service to work on those challenges.

Mr Ranjit Uppal, a solicitor, Consultant Lecturer with SFAC and a resource person called on Social Welfare Officers to be proactive, intervene with the families on a proportionate basis before considering adoption for the children.

They should explore provision of services for the families and demonstrate how they tried to work with the families, he said.
Ghanaians should rely on the support of the Church rather than opting for adoption.

Mr Stephen Dombo, Head of Central Control Adoption Authority said the role of the institution was to review all the applications from the regions and out of them determine the suitability and eligibility of the applicants.

Mr Dombo said Ghana was a Hague country and must be Hague compliant in adoption process, stating some of the challenges as lack of understanding in the adoption process.

This, he attributed to lack of education on the new reforms adding that many people did not understand the process of adoption.