GENDER BASED VIOLENCE (GBV)

our women and girls

Gender based violence is the violations of an individual’s rights because they are male or female. According to Mr.  Robert Akoto Amoafo from the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), the greater portion of people abused are women in reference to GBV. He added that a smaller percentage of men are also violated it is a silent epidemic. These violations according to him are most often culturally, traditionally and poverty driven although other factors like naivety.  Old women and pregnant teenage girls are the most vulnerable.

According to article 1 and 5 of the universal declaration of human rights(UDHR),  signed by 48 member states of the UN in 1948, ‘all are born free and equal in rights and in dignity; no one shall be subjected to cruel or dehumanizing  treatment or torture respectively. However, the dignity of our older women is compromised unlike the men. At a certain stage in their lives, some older women are accused of being witches when there is a misfortune in the family although these may be as a result of our own actions and in actions. For example, a man who has forgotten that five years ago he made a girl pregnant and asked her to abort it will blame his grandmother or any old lady in his family if he is unable to bear children. These old women are subjected to physical and emotional tortures from family members and sometimes sent off to witches camps. Sometimes before sent to witches camps, some family members deny them food and attention, insult them and treat them like they are not human. Every year, 1000 old women are taken to witches camps according to INTEGRATED REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORK (IRIN). These old women are sent out of the community where there are separated their loved ones and people they care about. It is really unfortunate that family members and the society as a whole allow this practice. It is everyone’s responsibility to protect the rights of these old women. Let us not sit and watch this go on in our society’s .it is about time we put a stop to this practice. It’s surprising and sad that only the old women suffer this.

 pictures of a camp and some of the 'witches'

Teenage girls who become pregnant are not left out of this discriminatory. At the end of 2013, Ghana recorded 75000 teenage pregnancies according to statistics conducted by the Ghana Health Service. The right to education of these girls as entrenched in the 1992 constitution of Ghana and the UDHR are most often abused. Their rights to be treated equally are also abused. It has become a routine and a tradition that any girl who gets pregnant whiles still in school must drop out if they are not ready for an abortion. The boys who get them pregnant however are allowed to be in school if they are still students. Speaking to a few teen mothers they would love to go back to school after delivery but are afraid of the stigmatization. The guys however walk freely which is very unfair. It is the responsibility of everyone to protect the rights of these girls. Imagine all these 75000 girls dropping out of school, this means we are losing a lot of our future leaders and this is not good for a country. It is our duty to help end this practice.