Workshop on female genital mutilation opens.

Mrs Gladys Asmah, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, said on Wednesday it was time seminars and workshops on harmful traditional practices were shifted from the cities to the rural areas where the problems were common.

She said despite the numerous media reports about workshops on various abuses against women, "we are still scratching at the tip of the iceberg."

"Perhaps it is time we moved away from the multiplicity of seminars, conferences and workshops in the big cities and get down to where the problem is found," she added.

Mrs Asmah was opening a day's advocacy workshop on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) organised by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for partners in the health sector.

The workshop aimed at sharing information on best practices and strategies for eradication of FGM for individuals and organisations working in the communities. Mrs Asmah urged women groups to discuss the issue of FGM to understand why it was practised so that they would be able to evolve appropriate interventions to address the problem.

"The mere fact that two law enforcement officers could not protect the recent five victims of FGM in the Wenchi district of the Brong Ahafo region should bring to the fore that the communities, which practise these rites, either do not know about the legal prohibition of the practice or they respect their practice more than the law.

"That parents of the victims could aid and abet the practice may mean the stigma of not going through the rites constitutes a serious breach of family dignity and respect," she said.

The Minister urged the partners to focus on men and use more male advocates for the cause of women because in the rural communities, men constitute and hold the symbols of authority.

Dr Melville O. George, WHO Representative, said Ghana was at the forefront among the five African countries identified by the organisation to establish multidisciplinary collaboration groups to review progress made in each country in relation to the elimination of FGM.

He said it was estimated that globally, between 100 and 140 million women and girls had undergone some form of FGM with another two million being at risk each year.

He said despite the magnitude of the social health burden of FGM, the act still persisted and urged the Legislatures of practising countries to impose stiffer punishment on the perpetrators.

Madam Beatrice Duncan, Rights Protection and Promotion Officer at UNICEF, said the fund was supporting peer education programme with the view of giving the members of the various communities the chance to play the advocacy role in eradicating harmful traditional practices among themselves.