Child-marriages down in central Region

Reported cases of children below 15 years being forced into marriage in the Central Region has declined, James Dawson-Amoah, principal administrative officer of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has said.

The Regional CHRAJ office, he explained did not record any of such cases last year as against the 65 cases in 2005.

Mr Dawson-Amoah made these disclosures in an interview with the Times here last Thursday.

He explained that the decline in forced teenage marriages was due to the sustained education campaigns by the office.

Besides, he said the formation of human rights clubs in schools also contributed significantly to enlightening the public on the need to respect the rights of all people including children.

Mr Dawson-Amoah said that CHRAJ last year settled 1,040 cases out of 1,236 cases reported to it.

He said 397 of the cases were child related, 169 spousal rights or maintenance, 258 on economic and social rights, 261 on property rights, whilst 121, two and 26 were connected with administrative justice, corruption and political rights respectively.

He saId 41 of the cases were withdrawn by the petitioners, 108 dismissed for lack of prosecution, 29 rejected for delaying in presentation and 84 referred to other jurisdictions for settlement.

Mr Dawson-Amoah said the commission actually settled 712 of the reported cases and said 22 and 35 were rejected for lack of jurisdiction and self-settlement respectively.

He stated further that the recorded cases fell below 1,445 recorded in 2006 out of which the Commission resolved 1,254.

He added that 120 of the cases pending in 2006 were settled by the commission last year.