UN Women hails new Electoral Commission boss

Mrs Charlotte Ama Osei
Accra, June 27, GNA - The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59) has hailed the appointment of Mrs Charlotte Ama Osei, as the new Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC).

The UN women considers the appointment as a bold step by the government and inconformity with the new 15 years reinvigorated targets for the full realisation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, told Ghana News Agency that Ghana has once again set the pace for women empowerment.

She noted: 'The attitudes that perpetuate the culture of male superiority, and the stereotypes that diminish women remain. If we do not address this, our progress will always be compromised.'

'We have to be bold, because it has never been so possible to make the changes that we want to make. 'This is what we have to deal with now, once and for all. This is what we are referring to when we talk about dismantling patriarchy. This is what requires men to disown this institution of patriarchy.'

Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka said the inequality of representation in politics, the economy and other areas is one aspect that has not been addressed fully.

'The fact that no country has achieved gender equality requires strong action and strong attention.

'We encourage countries to get closer to the target of equality and to go full steam ahead, and demonstrate how to break new grounds.'

Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka admitted that some changes have brought benefits to women. But the reality is that the world has not changed for men.

'Even good men still continue to enjoy patriarchy.
'This situation has to change for everybody. This is about breaking the walls of patriarchy brick by brick, not surviving within patriarchy. I cannot emphasise that more. We have to figure out how to achieve this.

'We have to dismantle patriarchy because when we talk about gender equality something is lost in the translation. If we call the thing by its name, we may just be able to focus our energy exactly where we want the change to be,' Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

The UN Women reiterated that from 2015 - 2020 'we want to frontload our actions, so that we get the substantive, critical game-changers on the table first and do not wait for the latter part of the period of the sustainable development goals to begin to gain speed'.

'With this, we can project that by 2030 we can talk of Planet 50-50. Planet 50-50 is about the equal representation of women, the depth of their participation, the substantiveness of their participation, as well as being about the numbers - because numbers do make a difference,' she said.

President John Dramani Mahama in consultation with the Council of State appointed Mrs Osei as the new Chair of the EC.

Mrs Osei, who takes over from Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, was the Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education.

GNA