Wa Police Station has no cells for women, juveniles

Wa, Dec.12, GNA - The Commission on Human Rights And Administrative Justice, (CHRAJ) has appealed to the Wa Municipal Assembly and the Regional Police Command to jointly construct separate cells for women and juveniles at the Wa Police Station

Mr. Ubaidu Saddique, Upper West Regional Director of CHRAJ, who gave the advice, said the absence of such facilities were infringing on the rights of women and children and violating the United Nations Convention on Rights.

Mr. Saddique was addressing youth organisations, human rights groups and a cross section of government workers to mark this year's United Nations International Human Rights Day in Wa at the weekend. He said it was wrong for women and children to share the same cell with suspected hardened criminals and described the practice as 'horrendous and humiliating.'

"Additionally, the practice where all categories of suspected criminals are housed in one cell could serve as a fertile ground for some hardened criminals to coach some unfortunate and ignorant women and children without criminal skills for future exploits," he pointed out. Mr Saddique, who read the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon's message, and the "Report on the State of Human Rights in Ghana", said the report criticises cultural attitudes that continue to hinder the social progress of the country.

He said discriminatory and dehumanising customary practices and traditional norms seem to consign many vulnerable persons, including women and children, to subservient and dehumanizing roles rather than allowing them to take their opportunities and compete with others on equal terms. He gave the assurance that CHRAJ would collaborate with other partners to implement programmes aimed at a wider societal appreciation and acceptance of fundamental human rights principles as a way of life. Mr. Saddique said human rights could not be said to be universal when women and children's rights were trampled upon everyday and called for collaboration of efforts by all human rights advocates to promote the rights of women, children and the vulnerable in society.

He explained that human rights were not conferred on the people by governments, but that human beings were born with rights and all must respect them without discrimination.

He called for the overview of cultural practices, traditional norms and attitudes as well as behaviours and actions that undermine human rights towards reformation and abolishment.

On the forthcoming district assembly and unit committee elections on December 28, Mr. Saddique appealed to women to support their colleague women contestants to win the elections. 12 Dec. 10