Mrs. Mercy Larbi, Ashanti Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has entreated pregnant women not to go on night duties because it is against their rights.

According to the CHRAJ boss, pregnant women must be bold enough to ensure strict compliance of the law passed by the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, by not going to work at night.

Speaking at the launch of the 20th anniversary of Defence For Children International (DCI) Ghana, sponsored by the government of The Netherlands, under the theme: “Protecting the rights of boys and girls”, Mrs. Larbi commended DCI Ghana for the close relationship in fighting or addressing issues concerning early marriage of children, sexual abuse and child labour.

She lamented over the recent increases in child abuse, and revealed that another challenge facing them is getting accommodation for the children, who they normally come to their rescue from early marriage and the worst form of child labour, and tasked the government and other stakeholders to always come to their assistance to enable them accommodate them.

Dr. George Oppong, Executive Director of DCI Ghana, explained that through diligence, DCI-Ghana, together with ten other NGOs, submitted a report to complement the government report on the state of rights of Ghanaian children to the UN committee.

According to him, recommendations by the NGOs in their report collaborated concluding observations on the Ghana report by a UN Committee in 1997.

Dr. Oppong noted that in order to have a good front to cooperate with the government in the follow-up actions on the concluding observations for effective promotion and protection of children’s rights in Ghana, the 11 CSOs, including DCI-Ghana, formed the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC) in 1996, soon after the submission of the NGO complementary report.

He said DCI-Ghana became the convenor of the Issues Sub-committee of the coalition leading in the advocacy for child rights issues in the country.

Dr. Oppong, stated that DCI-Ghana’s activities evolve around the concept of Socio-Legal Defence Centre (SLDC) operated by the organisation, which centre provides information and training in child rights, as well as socio-legal protective services for child victims of abuse.

He made mention of the thematic areas of operations, which include Juvenile Justice, Children Protection, Sexual and Gender Based Violence and other forms of child abuse, Worst forms of Child Labour and Child Trafficking.

He disclosed that the Girl Power project, which was launched five years ago, sought to empower girls and young women, as the government partners and the CSOs collaborated and worked hard to achieve the targets of the project, which, he said, was externally evaluated and shown to have been successful.

He said some of the key achievements are the Child Protection Network of Government Partners and CSOs, which have now been adopted by the Department of Children as the Child Protection Committee and Referral Protocol among the key partners in child protection.

The platforms, he said, provide useful avenues for advocacy and case management on child protection issues in the region.

He stated that a community-based Child Protection Team, referred to as the Local Advisory Committee for its child friendliness and the usefulness of these community-based child protection structures, lies in their linkage with the formal systems to ensure effective and sustainable child protection at the community and district levels.

DSP Susana Dery, Deputy Regional Director of DOVSU, commended DCI-Ghana, especially, Ms Deborah Asamoah Antwi, Project Coordinator, for a close-working relationship with DOVSU, especially when their support is needed in doing research and tracing, or investigating a victim concerning early forced marriage or child labour in rescuing a victim.

Mrs. Elizabeth Agyemang, MP for Oforikrom constituency, said the nation has failed when it comes to children’s education, saying “there are laws, but we don’t enforce them.”