The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, has observed that multi-sectoral interventions were needed to drive forward the Women's Empowerment agenda.

According to Mrs Appiah –Oppong, effective action by all partners were critical to scale over the hurdles to women's advancement.

“The presented challenges indicate that there is the need for broad based multi-sectoral interventions for advancement of Women's Empowerment agenda. It also calls for effective action by all partners in the advancement of women,” she added.

She was addressing a news conference in Accra which saw the launch of a month-long celebration of women's activities relative to the International Women's Day, which was celebrated on Sunday, March 8. She regretted the difficulties to the realisation of 30 per cent women representation in key decision-making positions in the country.

The Attorney-General enumerated some of these obstacles, which included difficulties in accessing the justice system, lack of productive resources, such land, technology and information, negative cultural perceptions of gender equality and society's inability to adequately handle gender issues in HIV/AIDS.

The global theme for the International Women's Day was “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It.” The global theme for the International Women's Day was “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It.”

The theme adopted for Ghana was “Beijing +20, Advancing Women's Empowering.” The celebrations seek to review the achievements and challenges after 20 years of the Beijing Conference on Women Empowerment.

Some of the activities slated for the period include the screening of “Love or Something Like That,” a Shirley Frimpong-Manso film, on the 9 March at the Labadi Beach Hotel and 22 March at the University of Ghana, Legon, for women to convey HIV messages to the middle class in society in Ghana.

There will also be a women's health walk on March 28, commencing from Osu Police Station to Mantse Agbonaa, James Town, where a skit conveying women empowerment messages will be performed.

Speaking at the news conference, UNAIDS Country Director, Girmay Haile, noted that empowering humanity was possible if every person, irrespective of gender, was given equal opportunity to fully develop their potentials.

Mr Haile noted that efforts towards the promotion and protection of women's rights would continue even after the celebration of the International Women's Day to enable Ghana to consolidate its gains towards greater results after 2015.

“Women empowerment will be meaningless or impossible if women do not enjoy good health. After all, human dignity has no end and neither will the duty to respect human rights of all,” he added.