US govt supports human rights advocacy project

Tamale, October 30, GNA- The United States Government has provided 10,000 dollars for two Tamale-based NGOs to undertake human rights advocacy activities in the Northern Region.

The Community Development and Youth Advisory Centre (CODEYAC) and Collaboration with Women in Distress (COLWOD), are engaged in sensitising people in the region on human rights abuses, especially child trafficking.

At a forum to launch the "Phase II" of the project, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Adam Iddrisu, in a speech read for him, appealed to other countries to support human rights and democracy in developing countries.

He said trafficking in women and children is one of the worst forms of human rights violations in the world and urged governments and other stakeholders to make a concerted effort to ensure human security on earth.

" We cannot claim to be innocent about the influx of young girls and boys to the south in search of non-existent jobs and end up being lured into jobs that are dehumanising".

Mr Adam said the government had, under the Community-Based Poverty Reduction Programme, repatriated some of these girls back to their communities and is providing them with vocational skills training to be self or gainfully employed.

He said among the interventions the government had instituted to support young girls to become self-reliant are Women in Agriculture Programme, the Social Investment Fund (SIF), and the Emergency Social Relief Fund.

Mr Adam appealed to the government to improve education facilities in the rural areas to enhance effective teaching and learning, saying, "human rights abuses are prevalent in areas where the level of illiteracy is high".

Alhaji Hussein Zakaria, Executive Director of CODEYAC, said the lack of human rights awareness among the youth especially in the areas of political party rivalry and chieftaincy disputes had always made them to use violence to resolve conflicts.

He said to promote social change in the youth democracy and human rights education would have to be designed to reach individuals and groups at the grassroots level.

Alhaji Zakaria said the Phase II of the project would target the rural and peri-urban communities in the Tamale Metropolis through the use of non-formal education instructors and Teacher Training Colleges in the dissemination of human rights and child trafficking messages to the people.