Regional News of Friday, 5 September 2003

Source: GNA

Non-maintenance of children cases increase in Volta Region

Ho, Sept. 5, GNA- Non-maintenance of spouses and children is on the ascendancy in the Volta Region, Mr Godwin Kpoble, Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said on Friday.

Statistics at the Commission showed that non-maintenance of spouses and children constituted about 75 percent of 922 cases it received last year.

Mr Kpoble who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview attributed the high prevalence of the cases to unemployment and the prevailing economic hardships in the country.

He said 514 cases out of 922 the Commission received within the same period were disposed. They included rights to property, custody of children, inheritance, inhuman treatment and unlawful dismissals. Mr Kpoble said the Commission received 403 cases between January and August, this year, in the Ho District out of which it disposed of five.

He said lack of incentives and human resource, militated against the work of the Commission, and appealed to government to provide it with the basic tools to enable it fulfil its Constitutional obligation.