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19.04.2015 Headlines

99% Of Ghanaians Have Sex Before Marriage

By Graphic.Com.Gh
99 Of Ghanaians Have Sex Before Marriage
19.04.2015 LISTEN

The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur has urged the public not to fuse sex with marriage. According to her, the two were different and that to help end child marriages, the public should not fuse sex and marriage.

In Ghana, a discrepancy exists between the legal age of sexual consent and legal age of marriage.

Whilst that of sex according to the Children's Act is age 16, that of marriage is 18, stipulated in the 1992 constitution.

In some communities, it was a cultural and traditional thing that once a girl or young woman consents to sex and becomes pregnant; she has to marry even if she has not attained age 18.

This, according to social scientists was due to the fear of stigma of teenage pregnancy as well as protection of girls' virginity and 'family honour.'

This has raised concerns that the country should therefore consider passing a law that prescribes a same age for consent for sex and marriage as part of efforts to ending child marriages.

But the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur thinks that there was no point fusing sex and marriage.

Speaking at a two-day media workshop on joining efforts to ending child marriages which was held in the Eastern regional capital of Koforidua, the Minister said sex and marriage were two different things.

She argued that in practice, sex does not only occur within marriage and that sex also occurs outside of marriage, between girlfriends and boyfriends and what have you.

'what is happening is that at 16, you have the legal power and authority to consent to have sex with somebody. You get married at age 18. So marriage is separate from having sex. I don't know why we try to put the two together, because I'm sure if you went round this room, 99 percent of us would have had sex without being married, so why do you want to fuse sex and marriage,' she told the journalists.

She said the country cannot have a law that prescribes that you get married at age 18 and then you also can have sex at age 18. 'They are two different issues,' she said.

'When you even look at the research data in Ghana, you find out that the age at which people are having sex is even younger than 16. But of course for the purposes of morality and all that we need to set a date [sic],' she said.

"So the same researchers and sociologist have come up with the age of 16, where they believe that 16 is the age at which somebody is mature or or whatever enough to be able to consent. And that was passed by Parliament in 1998, so if there is an issue, then it is up to Parliament to review.... But age of marriage and sex are two different notions and we should package it as such."

Asked if the country would not be promoting promiscuity if it continued to separate marriage from sex by law in that regard, Nana Oye Lithur said the issue has to be interrogated further.

'Well let's discuss this further and see, because I think it is a good point that you are making. because we want to address child marriage, it is basically to act as a deterrent, let's discuss it and see.'

Contributing to the discussions, the Deputy Sector Minister, John Alexander Ackon said: 'Consent should be taken into consideration but you seem to suggest that because one is 16, the person should necessarily go and have sex. That is not what the point is. it only says that if you want to, you should have the consent of the person.'

Ghana is reported to have one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates in the world according to the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). About 27 per cent of women between ages 20 - 24 years were married or were in union before age 18 in 2011 according to the MICS.

Again one out of four girls or 25 per cent will be married before their 18th birthday, six per cent will marry before age 15 and 36 per cent of girls in rural areas will be married before 18 compared to 19 per cent in urban areas.

The MICS studies also show a worrying trend of increased levels of child marriage especially in the Western, Central, Eastern, Ashanti and Greater Accra regions of Ghana.

Regional Prevalence Rates (before age 18) - source: MICS 2011

Child Marriage occurs in all parts of Ghana, but there are regional disparities.

DHS 2008 MICS 2011
Upper East 50% 39.7%
Upper West 39% 36.1%
Northern 36% 27.6%
Volta 33% 29.5%
Brong Ahafo 33% 29.1%
Central 28% 30.5%
Ashanti 23% 31.1%
Eastern 18% 27.1%
Western 18% 36.7%
Greater Accra 11% 12%
Commenting, the Minister said the Domestic Violence Act allows for a judge to offer or get the parties to go for mediation.

But for rape and defilement, they are not even part of the Domestic Violence Act. They are offences under the Criminal Offences Act and we have the criminal procedure code which is clear, she said.

She said out of court settlement for rape and defilement were unlawful and so no judge has the power or legal authority to order an out of court settlement.

' if there is any judge doing that it is wrong and any member of the public who has experienced it should report to the judicial complaints unit if any judge facilitates an out of court settlement for rape or defilement .'

Nana Oye Lithur proposed that the country had reached a stage where it should consider passing a law on victim support.

'We should look at victim support, at least have either a policy or legal framework for victim support. In our laws a judge can order compensation. In 1999 there was a research on gender based violence and it found out that for 80 per cent of reported cases, those who sought help at the health care facilities, they were all given medication for pain. But only 20 percent got psycho social counselling or support of some sort."

She said the Ministry was now engaging with the health sector and urging them to draw guidelines and protocols to scale up health support for victims which she said Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has taken the lead with the setting up of the Child Assault Centre.

Dinah Adikoh, Technical Advisor on Gender leading discussions at the workshopDinah Adikoh, Technical Advisor on Gender leading discussions at the workshop

'You know you play a critical role and in fact a number of you even in this room have reported cases of child marriages that are actually occurring. The way you report it also can help to scale it up or scale it down, the sort of language and the manner.'

She expressed appreciation for the media's support for government's effort at ending child marriages.

Facilitators at the workshop were Dr Agnes Akosua Aidoo, a former UNICEF Representative in Tanzania and Vice Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ms Rosemary Ardayfio, Deputy Chief Sub-Editor, Daily Graphic, Dinah Adiko, Technical Advisor on Gender and Ms Victoria Natsu, Ag Executive Secretary, Domestic Violence Secretariat.

Dr Agnes Akosua Aidoo discussed some of the driving factors of child marriages as poverty at family and community levels, gender-based cultural norms that places low values on girls' education and human development.

She noted that female children were viewed as 'financial burden' to some families especially in dowry system and said there was lack of political will to put child marriage on national agenda.

Ms Rosemary Ardayfio made a presentation on the role of the Media in Eliminating Child Marriage and led discussions and group work on the topic.

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