Public urged to stop abuse against women

Accra, Nov. 28, GNA - A capacity development women's rights training workshop for journalists, film makers, bloggers, women and child rights activists and producers, has ended in Accra with a call on the public to stop abuse against women.

Mr Norman Amidu, Executive Director, Communiscape, a media development organisation said empowering women economically is the right foundation the public and leaders could give women instead of the abuses churned out to them on daily basis at wherever they found themselves.

'Empowering women would also empower them and their families for development goals and help reduce abuses.

'God created all of us, we are all equal in His sight and so abuse against women needs to be stopped,' he said.

Mr Amidu made the remarks at the end of a three-day women's rights training workshop organised by the Young Heart Foundation (YHF) with funding from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

Explaining the rationale behind the engagement with the group of people especially journalists, the Executive Director said the workshop, which was the first and formal engagement with journalists, aimed at educating and sensitising them on how best to propagate and report on women's rights issues in Ghana.

'It also aims at helping journalists to know how best to package and disseminate information on ways of implementing and formulating policies for women's rights issues in Ghana as well as they being the gatekeepers will be able to inform and create different concepts for the public,' he said.

Mr Amidu observed that women's rights needed to be at the centre of all policy formulation and called for a concerted effort amongst stakeholders to efficiently help promote women's rights in the country as an essential commodity for development.

'Position of leadership does not give one the right to abuse,' he said.

He asked journalists to holistically accord women's rights stories with the needed attention that would help promote people's rights in the country.

Other speakers lauded the organisers for the training workshop that sought to broaden the knowledge, scope and ideas of journalists on women's rights in the country.

Other speakers said for women's rights to be an in-depth subject for the understanding of journalists and the public they informed, there is the need for an advocacy aimed at improving mechanism for addressing the issue.

They stressed that when much importance is accorded to women's rights, journalists would know how best to project their stories, using the right words and techniques among others.

They also called for such trainings for the various religious leaders in the country.

Some news editors who shared ideas with participants lauded YHF and OSIWA for the initiative, saying it was a refresher programme that would help journalists and other stakeholders to understand the basic concepts and the knowledge of the subject matter in order to get basic answers for the country's development.

The participants shared ideas on Human Rights and Gender, Customary Law and Gender, Culture and Tradition and Gender as well as Religion and Gender.

The participants called for collaborative and pragmatic measures amongst YHF, OSIWA, government, institutions and other stakeholders to help curb injustices imposed on women.

The training workshop was on the theme: "Promoting the Rights of Women, Youth, Vulnerable Groups and Differently Abled Persons."

Certificates were awarded to the participants.
GNA