CHRAJ: Don’t deny children of their educational rights

Tema, June 17, CDA Consult - The 2022 World Day Against Child Labour has been launched in Tema through the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Tema Regional Office with a call on parents and guardians not to deny children of their educational rights.

The World Day Against Child Labour is this year being celebrated on the theme: “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour.”

The launching was done at the Ghana News Agency, Tema Industrial News Hub as the Tema Regional Secretariat of CHRAJ is collaborating with the Agency to sensitize the public on the menace of child labour, monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

Madam Fatimata Mahami, CHRAJ Tema Regional Director, and Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency jointly launched the event with a call to all stakeholders to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour.

Madam Mahami said child labour was tantamount to slavery, and it threaten the health, education and development of the child in diverse ways.

Citing the 2014 Ghana Living Survey carried out by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the CHRAJ Director said 21.8 per cent of persons between the ages of five and 17 years were engaged in child labour in Ghana.

She added that the survey also revealed that it was endemic in the rural areas than the urban areas as respectively the prevalence recorded was 30.2 per cent and 12.4 per cent for rural and urban.

Madam Mahami mentioned that small-scale mining, quarries, head potters, commercial sex exploitation, cocoa and other cash crops plantations, as well as fishing activities among others, were some of the types of work that child labourers were engaged in.

The CHRAJ Tema Regional Director indicated that some of the causes of child labour included poverty and economic issues, rural-urban migration, socio-cultural, ethnic violence, outmoded harmful cultural practices, and discriminatory inheritance patterns.

Mr John Ato Breboh, Senior Principal Investigator at CHRAJ, Tema said children must not be deprived of educational rights under the guise of traditionally imparting entrepreneurial skill and family trading into them.

Mr Breboh said, “it is during the period of families training their children to take up their trade that they end up depriving the children of their education.”

He added that differentiation should be made between child work and child labour explaining that even though the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 138 indicated that children from the age of 15 could be engaged in work, it must be appropriate to their age as they were still children.

He said it was worrying that children as young as five, and six years were engaged in all forms of exploitative and dangerous works, adding that for instance children at such ages were being used for fishing activities in coastal areas such as Tema Newtown.

The Senior Principal Investigator stated that CHRAJ was not against children helping in house chores, running errands for the family or selling provisions at home, but rather any form of work that might affect their health, education, and physical development was against Ghana and international laws.

He spoke against the use of children to sell alcoholic drinks in bars and spots as it was against their moral development.

Mr Breboh revealed that domestic servitude was another worrying trend going on in the country, as he explained that people were bringing children from the rural areas under the pretence of enrolling them in schools only to turn them into maids in their houses.

He said such children ended up being used as hawkers carrying heavy wares to sell, while others also served as waiters and waitresses at bars as a way to support the economic stands of the family while the children of their masters received the needed education.

Mrs Elorm Kupomey, an Investigator at CHRAJ, Tema, said it was about time that the country became sensitive to issues of children and protecting their rights and development.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency in a welcome address said media practitioners must lead the campaign against child labour issues as it was a concern for all.

Mr Ameyibor said the GNA-Tema, therefore, found it important to give full support to CHRAJ to help sensitize the public on child-labour-related issues, their effect on children, and the society.

Source: CDA Consult
Tema, June 17, CDA Consult - The 2022 World Day Against Child Labour has been launched in Tema through the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Tema Regional Office with a call on parents and guardians not to deny children of their educational rights.

The World Day Against Child Labour is this year being celebrated on the theme: “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour.”

The launching was done at the Ghana News Agency, Tema Industrial News Hub as the Tema Regional Secretariat of CHRAJ is collaborating with the Agency to sensitize the public on the menace of child labour, monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

Madam Fatimata Mahami, CHRAJ Tema Regional Director, and Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency jointly launched the event with a call to all stakeholders to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour.

Madam Mahami said child labour was tantamount to slavery, and it threaten the health, education and development of the child in diverse ways.

Citing the 2014 Ghana Living Survey carried out by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the CHRAJ Director said 21.8 per cent of persons between the ages of five and 17 years were engaged in child labour in Ghana.

She added that the survey also revealed that it was endemic in the rural areas than the urban areas as respectively the prevalence recorded was 30.2 per cent and 12.4 per cent for rural and urban.

Madam Mahami mentioned that small-scale mining, quarries, head potters, commercial sex exploitation, cocoa and other cash crops plantations, as well as fishing activities among others, were some of the types of work that child labourers were engaged in.

The CHRAJ Tema Regional Director indicated that some of the causes of child labour included poverty and economic issues, rural-urban migration, socio-cultural, ethnic violence, outmoded harmful cultural practices, and discriminatory inheritance patterns.

Mr John Ato Breboh, Senior Principal Investigator at CHRAJ, Tema said children must not be deprived of educational rights under the guise of traditionally imparting entrepreneurial skill and family trading into them.

Mr Breboh said, “it is during the period of families training their children to take up their trade that they end up depriving the children of their education.”

He added that differentiation should be made between child work and child labour explaining that even though the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 138 indicated that children from the age of 15 could be engaged in work, it must be appropriate to their age as they were still children.

He said it was worrying that children as young as five, and six years were engaged in all forms of exploitative and dangerous works, adding that for instance children at such ages were being used for fishing activities in coastal areas such as Tema Newtown.

The Senior Principal Investigator stated that CHRAJ was not against children helping in house chores, running errands for the family or selling provisions at home, but rather any form of work that might affect their health, education, and physical development was against Ghana and international laws.

He spoke against the use of children to sell alcoholic drinks in bars and spots as it was against their moral development.

Mr Breboh revealed that domestic servitude was another worrying trend going on in the country, as he explained that people were bringing children from the rural areas under the pretence of enrolling them in schools only to turn them into maids in their houses.

He said such children ended up being used as hawkers carrying heavy wares to sell, while others also served as waiters and waitresses at bars as a way to support the economic stands of the family while the children of their masters received the needed education.

Mrs Elorm Kupomey, an Investigator at CHRAJ, Tema, said it was about time that the country became sensitive to issues of children and protecting their rights and development.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency in a welcome address said media practitioners must lead the campaign against child labour issues as it was a concern for all.

Mr Ameyibor said the GNA-Tema, therefore, found it important to give full support to CHRAJ to help sensitize the public on child-labour-related issues, their effect on children, and the society.

Source: CDA Consult