Child marriage violates fundamental rights of girls – Gender Ministry
Sunyani, April 01, 2023
The Gender Department under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has cautioned that child marriage violates the fundamental rights of girls and exposed them to high death risks.
When a girl is married as a child, she is at high risk of HIV and sexual transmitted infections, death during birth and debilitating medical conditions such as obstetrics fistula.
This has negative implications for Ghana’s economic prosperity, Mrs. Joyclyn Adii, the Bono Regional Director in charge of gender stated in Sunyani.
She was speaking at a two-day capacity building on strengthening community systems for protection from child marriage, abuses, rape Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV), HIV and TB, stigma and discrimination, organized by the Ministry in collaboration with the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG).
The event aimed at strengthening the capacities of community leaders such as Chiefs, Queen mothers, Assembly members, Youth Associations and others to be able to impact their communities by handling and preventing issues of child marriage and abuses.
The participants (about 60) including religious and faith-based leaders were from the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions.
Mrs. Adii worried child marriage do not only leave children in a very vulnerable position in instances of divorce and widowhood, but also put them at risk of sexual, physical and psychological violence throughout their lives.
The department is therefore on a move to ensures child marriage free society in Ghana by 2030, she stated.
Thefourlens.com
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