Monday, 13th June, 2022

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DAILY ANALYST Monday, 13th June, 2022
The Commission on
Human Rights and
Administrative Justice
(CHRAJ) has urged the
Government to improve
and expand social protection
systems to be more child sensitive
such as cash transfers, including
child grants.
The Commission said such a
child-sensitive system would also
prevent the likelihood of pushing
children into hazardous work
conditions.
Mr Joseph Whittal,
Commissioner of CHRAJ in a
statement copied to the Ghana
News Agency to commemorate
World Day Against Child Labour
(WDACL) on Sunday, further
stated that expanding social
protection systems, would help
improve the household income of
the most vulnerable.
In 2002, the International
Labour Organization (ILO)
established the WDACL to raise
awareness and activism towards
child labour prevention.
The ILO was created in 1919
with social justice objectives,
The Agbleza festival of
the chiefs and people of
Ziope in the Agotime-
Ziope district has been
launched with a call
on the people to toil to place the
festival on the tourism map of
the country.
Madam Emelia Emefa
Adzimah, the District Chief
Executive, who made the call said
strategic planning and hard work
could yield this result if “We are
poised collectively to do so.”
The Agbleza cloth was
also unveiled at the event on
the theme, Consolidating the
Gains of Farming towards Our
Development.”
She said a good repackaging
of the festival to depict the
cultural heritage and values of
the area could serve as a pull
factor towards making the
festival popular in the region,
country and globally.
She therefore urged the
people to forge a common unity,
devoid of decisive tendencies.
Madam Adzimah eulogised
the importance of peace, a
requisite for development, saying
in the absence of peace all plans
would remain as dreams urging
the people to constantly remain
peaceful.
She announced that the
district was a beneficiary
of government’s flagship
programme dubbed Agenda 111
including protection of children.
To achieve its child-oriented
objectives, the ILO adopted
the Convention on Minimum
Age (Convention No. 136, 1973)
providing for the minimum age of
employment of children.
Also in 1999, there was the
adoption of Convention No.182
on the Elimination of the Worst
Forms of Child Labour.
This year’s global theme,
“Universal Social Protection to
End Child Labour” focuses on
pushing for increased investment
in social protection systems
and schemes to ensure social
protection avenues and the
protection of children against
child labour.
According to the ILO, as at
the beginning of 2020, one in
10 children aged five and over
were involved in child labour
worldwide – representing an
estimated 160 million children,
or 63 million girls and 97 million
boys.
Also, it is estimated that, there
are more children in child labour
in Sub-Saharan Africa than in the
rest of the world combined.
Specifically in Ghana, there
is an average of 21 per cent of
children aged five to 17 years
involved in child labour, with 14
per cent engaged in hazardous
forms of labour.
Ghana is a signatory to
United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child, ILO Convention
on Minimum Age (Convention
No.138, 1978), and Worst Forms of
Child Labour, 1999 (Convention
No. 182,), the African Charter on
the Rights and Welfare of the
Child, the Palermo Protocol and
relevant ECOWAS Protocols and
Child Policy and Strategic Plan of
Action.
Nationally, Ghana has an
extensive legal and policy
framework to ensure the
protection of children and the
1992 Constitution protects
the rights of children against
any work that threatens their
development.
In addition, there is the
Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), the
Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act
694), the Domestic Violence Act,
2007 (Act 732), The Criminal Code,
1960 (Act 29) and the Criminal
Code (Amendment) Act, 1998 (Act
554)
Ṫherefore, CHRAJ advised
the Government to implement
Target 1.3 of the Sustainable
Development Goal 1 (End Poverty)
that calls for the implementation
of nationally appropriate social
People Of Ziope Launch The Agbleza Festival
project for which the site was
handed over to the consultant
and contractor saying actual
physical works is expected to
start soon.
She spoke about other
government interventions of the
government such as planting
for food and jobs, planting for
export and rural development,
one district one factory and one
village one dam, many of these
the district being a beneficiary.
The DCE reminded the
gathering about the recent
spike in covid-19 cases in some
parts of the country and advised
them to continue to adhere to
the protocols with those yet to
social protection systems
take the jab to do so adding the
Monkeypox and Influenza are
new arrivals.
Mr Charles Agbeve, Member
of Parliament (MP) of the area
said a well-packaged festival
could be a good rallying point
for socio-cultural and economic
development and declared his
full support to the festival.
He called on citizens of the
area home and abroad to lend
their full support to the festival
to attract the necessary impetus.
Togbui Vizaze Adzaho, the
Awadada of Ziope traditional Area
is upbeat about improving the
festival this year recounting the
success of the previous one.
protection systems and measures
for all, with substantial coverage
of the poor and the vulnerable.
In addition, the Commission
entreated the Government
to implement relevant
recommendations of the
Universal Periodic Review as
Ghana prepared to submit its
national report to the Human
Rights Council in October 2022 for
the Fourth Cycle Review.
It acknowledged the
significance of Ghana’s
comprehensive social protection
framework such as the Social
Protection Policy with its
flagship programmes, including
Livelihoods Empowerment
Against Poverty (LEAP), the
Labour-Intensive Public Works
(LIPW), the School Feeding
Programme (SFP), the National
Health Insurance (NHIS)
Exemptions and the Basic
Education Capitation Grants.
Those social protection
initiatives, CHRAJ noted, had
been instrumental in alleviating
poverty in many Ghanaian
households and helped reduce
poor coping mechanism by
families such as school dropout,
child trafficking and child labour.
Notwithstanding all those
Many public
basic schools in
Accra have no
washrooms, the
Ghana News
Agency (GNA) has observed.
Those with washrooms have
them in an awfully bad state and
also not disable-friendly.
At the Liberty Mantse or
Farisco Cluster of School, toilet
facilities were available but not
disability friendly.
An official of the School, who
spoke on condition of anonymity,
said some prominent persons in
government who attended the
school, had pledged to extend
a helping hand to give the
institution a facelift in the next
few months, and hoped that they
would offer help as promised.
The Calvary Methodist Basic
Cluster of Schools, Adabraka, also
had toilet facilities, but lacked
an entire water, sanitation and
hygiene (WASH) facility.
“We are not under the
Government’s WASH project
at all. We have toilet and hand
washing facilities but lack
changing rooms for the female
learners who need it sometimes
when in their periods. This is
really challenging for them and
we appeal that we are considered
in that regard,” a lady who said
she was afraid to talk, said.
An authority at the Osu Salem
Primary School, told the GNA that
the School had a toilet facility,
efforts by the government to
reduce child labour in Ghana, Mr
Whittal stated that the emergence
of the COVID-19 pandemic and its
aftermath economic and social
developments had disrupted gains
made pre-pandemic period.
A survey by UNICEF showed
that an estimated 22 million
people in Ghana, about two-thirds
of the population, experienced
a decrease in household income
because of the pandemic.
Similarly, 52.1 per cent
of households reduced food
consumption as a coping
mechanism in the face of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, almost one
child out of every three lived in
monetary poverty, while 73 per
cent of children experienced
multidimensional poverty
suffering from multiple and
overlapping deprivations.
The Commission indicated
that those developments
highlighted the importance
of expanding Ghana’s social
protection systems to build
resilience of the poor and
vulnerable and to prevent poor
coping mechanisms that usually
led to child labour.
Many public basic
schools in Accra have
no washrooms
though not in a good state.
She said learners were
managing it with the hand
washing stations they had,
adding: “Our toilet facilities
are, however, not disability
friendly because we don’t have
any disability in this school at
the moment. But should we get
one now, the school will not be
convenient for that learner at
all.”
She said the school was
also in dire need of water to fill
its storage tank, as it was not
connected to the public water
lines.
“The lack of access to water
is a problem we are facing right
now in this school and that
makes it quite challenging to
maintain our WASH facility here
well,” she said.