Rights of teenage girls must receive attention - Lecturer

A call has been made to government to reinforce the implementation of existing laws which prohibit the infringement of the fundamental rights of especially teenage girls in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana through socio-cultural practices and traditions.

The Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University for Development Studies, Professor Agnes Atia Apusigah, made the call at a public forum in Kumasi.

According to her, most of these cultural practices and traditions, including female genital mutilation, are not only obnoxious but demeaning and serve as a threat to the physical and psychological makeup of victims.

There is, therefore, an urgent need for stronger working relationship between, especially, the Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Education, Health and the Interior, among other government departments and agencies, to ensure the development of effective policies to curtail the excesses of these practices.

Prof Apusigah also mentioned inadequate basic social and recreational amenities in most rural communities in the three regions of the north as a major factor that accounts for the increased migration of the youth to the southern parts of the country to engage in menial jobs.

To this end, she urged government to improve on quality education delivery, extend electricity and provide potable water to make life meaningful in these rural communities.

Prof Apusigah commended previous and current governments for appointing competent women into top government positions, adding that more could be done to ensure that women in both formal and informal sectors contribute their quota to the socio-economic transformation of the country.

In the light of this, she entreated Parliament to speedily pass the Affirmative Bill, among other gender-friendly bills.

Prof Apusigah also challenged female students, especially in tertiary institutions, to take responsibility for their overall academic and social development by being studious, diligent, innovative and morally upright.