NETRIGHT report establishes discrimination against women

Story: Salome Donkor
Last year, Ghana launched the 3rd, 4th and 5th Combined Reports on Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in Accra.
The ceremony provided a forum for the enumeration of measures taken over the years to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in the country.
The reports covered the period 1993 to 2003 and highlighted progress made over the decade in achieving gender equality, as well as challenges and efforts being made by the government towards the realisation of women’s empowerment, equality, equity and sustainable development.
The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) submitted the combined report, which was considered by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in August 2006.
State parties are enjoined under provisions of CEDAW to submit periodic reports to the committee on the elimination of discrimination against women and the three reports provided additional information on questions and issues raised in the report and offers a lot of issues for discussion.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides a framework for equality of all persons and outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender/sex. It promises to protect and promote all human rights and also prohibits all harmful customary practices.
The Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for gender equity, which made an assessment on issues of concern to women in Africa in 2008 has established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevail in Africa with increasing efforts being made to address them.
A paper presented by Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, the NETRIGHT Convenor, during the organisation’s end-of-year event in Accra, indicated that an estimated three million girls a year are said to be at risk from the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) and many of them are in Africa.
She said a major campaign was launched by 10 UN agencies who want a major reduction in the practice by 2015, adding that villages and communities in West Africa had joined together to make pledges to abandon the practice.
She indicated that within the Ghanaian context Ghana, stories published on women during the period featured a range of themes and more than half of all the stories were on women, politics and decision-making with a specific focus on the 2008 elections.
According to Dr Mensah-Kutin, other stories can be located within the general themes of violence against women, women's health, beauty and entertainment, women and the economy, as well as discriminatory practices against women.
She recalled that stories of violence against women included murders, rape and battering, featured in the Ghanaian media, as well as some stories of incest including one in which a 65-year-old catechist was alleged to have defiled his five-year-old granddaughter.
She said it was gratifying to note that the National Secretariat of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) wrote a rejoinder to correct the false impression that was created by a story published in the Ghanaian Times of September 3, 2008 that the number of husbands suffering physical abuse in the hands of their wives was getting higher than the reverse.
She said the real situation according to the rejoinder was that only records of the Ministries offices of the unit had been cited and that the explanation for that particular case was that many more men were willing to report cases of abuse against them by women.
On discriminatory practices against women often undertaken in the name of culture, the NETRIGHT Convenor made reference to the classic case in 2008 of three widows of the late Nana Kwaku Dimpo II, chief of New Longolo in the Kintampo North District in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The widows — Madam Yaa Nsia, 80, Madam Afua Nkume, 75, and Madam Ama Sumaa 69 — had performed widowhood rites for more than nine years in the name of culture and tradition as they could only be freed after the funeral rites of their late husband had been performed.
With reference to women's maternal health, it said public discussion about the causes and extent of maternal deaths also intensified after the government launched the free pregnancy care policy in a bid to reduce maternal deaths.
It said the launch had seen an upsurge of the numbers of pregnant women registering at health facilities. The British government had made funds available to support free care for pregnant women.
According to the report, many of the stories on HIV and AIDS were advisory in nature and generally called on the public to be sensitive to HIV and AIDS sufferers and to avoid stigmatisation.
The report said one major issue that was widely covered in all the newspapers around women and the economy was the Paris Declaration and its Aid Effectiveness High Level Forum III Conference, held in Accra from September 2 to 4, 2008.
Civil Society activities started early in the year and culminated in the organisation of the International Women's Forum and the Civil Society Parallel Event on August 31-September 1, 2008 and the Ministerial High Level Forum 3. NETRIGHT worked with other international women's groups to amplify the voices of women and the dissatisfaction with the current aid architecture and the need for an alternative that is responsive to women.
The report said there was also very little discussion about households, and the dynamics of social, economic and work relationships that occur and their implications for democracy, women's rights and gender equality, adding that this was a huge gap and women needed to pay attention if they were genuinely committed to promoting gender equality and equity.