UNICEF calls on government to ratify Optional Protocol
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has asked Ghana to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography.
Ms Anne Clair-Dufay, the UNICEF Country Representative to Ghana, said despite the country being the first in the world to ratify the Convention, it was yet to sign the very important Optional Protocol.
She was opening the 2021 two-day annual summit organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in Accra, on the theme, “Innovation for Service Delivery”.
She said signing the protocol was important as it would help strengthen the framework to protect children in Ghana.
This year’s summit seek to review the 2020/2021 performance of the Ministry with the aim of identifying challenges and drivers for effective service delivery.
It is also to agree on strategies with stakeholders that would enhance innovation through technology to improve service delivery.
Ms Dufay commended the Ministry for the innovative interventions put in place over the period.
She called for more action to address teenage pregnancy, early marriage and child violence were the major challenges facing adolescent girls.
She said research collated by UNICEF revealed that almost all adolescent girls were exposed to psychological aggression and nearly one in five experience severe physical punishment.
The research indicated that adolescent girls are at heightened risk of physical, psychological and sexual violence, with 22 per cent having suffered sexual abuse in the past 12 months.
One adolescent girl in every 10 had had sex below the age of 15, in comparison to one in every 14 adolescent boys, she added.
According to the research, one in five young women were married or in union before attending their 18th birthday and more than nine out of every 10 girls who are married were not attending school.
Ms Dufay noted that the statistics were worrying and continued to pose a challenge to the development and progress made in so many areas of child rights and gender equality.
She said such issues were multi-faceted and required integrated, cross-sectoral and innovative approaches to provide interventions aimed at child protection, health, education and social protection.
She urged the Ministry to intensify efforts to facilitate school re-entry for girls after child birth, saying, “we can also work to reach out-of-school girls with training and vocational opportunities”.
She congratulated the Ministry for producing the final draft of the Social Protection Bill, which entailed extensive consultation.
“We also welcome the initiatives of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in working with the Ministry of Finance to develop a multiyear sustainable financing plan for Social Protection, and to ensure allocated funding for social protection expenditure,” Ms Dufay stated.