Kumasi, July 24, GNA - Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, has appealed to human rights campaigners, community leaders and traditional rulers to collaborate with the Ministry to promote the rights and welfare of women and children to enhance their status in society.

"It is necessary to elevate the two groups from the state of vulnerability to partners in development. If not, the hard work of the minority who are men, will go down the drain and the country will remain impoverished," she said.

Hajia Mahama made the appeal in a speech read on her behalf at the inauguration of the Centre for Human Rights and Advanced Legal Research (CHRALER), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Kumasi at the weekend.

She was optimistic that the Domestic Violence Bill when enacted would enhance the enforcement of the rights of women and children to enable them have equal access to justice.

"In the face of beliefs and cultural practices that seem to promote men dominance, it behoved the nation to have in place such a law to change the trend in order to facilitate Ghana's socio-economic development," she added.

Hajia Mahama pointed out that the nation's quest to achieve a middle-income status would be evasive if the country did not carry in its development agenda issues concerning women and children, who constituted majority of the population.

"Issues concerning the two groups should be tackled at the highest level of governance and mainstreamed in all sectors and programmes down to the district levels," she said.

Mr Chris Adomako, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), stressed the need for women to be abreast with their fundamental human rights to be able to defend them.

Mr Ernest Owusu Dapaah, Chief Executive Officer of CHRALER, called on corporate bodies to support the Centre's activities.