Child Labour affect Human Capital Development - Chief Justice

The Chief Justice Mrs. Justice Georgina Wood, had noted that child labour and child trafficking negatively affect human capital development and the over all national development agenda. She said when children do not go to school they are denied the knowledge and skills needed for national development.

Mrs. Wood made the observation in a speech read on her behalf in Accra at a day's seminar for 42 Superior Court Judges on the worst forms of child labour and child trafficking.

The event was organized by Future Resource development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the Judicial Service and funded by the International Cocoa Initiative, Geneva.

Mrs. Wood said child labour retards national development, hence the need to classify the perpetrators as traitors and saboteurs who should be made to classify the perpetrators as traitors and saboteurs who should be made to face the law. She asked that the potential of children be directed towards national development.

The Executive director of the NGO, Mrs. Sylvia Hinson-Ekong urged government to enact comprehensive laws to protect children from all forms of abuse.

The Executive Director of the Geneva Initiative said the judiciary has a unique role in the prosecution of perpetrators of human trafficking to deter others.

Justice J. B. Akamba, who chaired the programme, urged judges to discharge their duties without fear of labour to eliminate child labour and child trafficking.