WELCOME ADDRESS DELIVERED BY LAWRENCE AMESU, DIRECTOR OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, GHANA AT A PUBLIC FORUM TO CELEBRATE THE 2010 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY HELD AT THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS CENTRE,
ACCRA – MARCH 8, 2010.
The Hon. Minister of Women's and Children's Affairs, the Chairperson, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I deemed it a privilege to be called upon to deliver the welcome address at this very important occasion for which we have all gathered here today. I must also say that I am pleasantly surprised and very happy to see many of you sacrificing your Ghana's Independence public holiday to participate in this event. It simply demonstrates the equal importance that you all give to the issue of women's affairs as well as the independence our dear nation. To paraphrase our great 1st President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, I would like to say that Ghana's independence will be meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of women in Ghana and in deed all over the world. It is therefore appropriate that we have all gathered here today to commemorate the International Women's Day (8th March).
The celebration of this year's International Women's Day coincides with the 15-year comprehensive review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA). As you may all recall,the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA) was adopted by consensus on 15 September 1995 by 189 governments participating in the 4thWorld Conference on Women in Beijing, China, and subsequently endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 8 December 1995. Since then, two 5-yearly major reviews were carried out namely the Beijing+5 Review, “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century” was undertaken in June 2000 and the Beijing+10 review, with focus on implementation at the national level took place in March 2005.
Amnesty International will take the opportunity of the Beijing +15 review and appraisal to draw attention to the urgent need for governments to acknowledge and respond to the critical gaps in the implementation of the BDPfA, which is also crucial for ensuring meaningful progress on the Millennium Development Goals. These gaps can not be addressed unless governments, traditional leaders and related authorities address the remaining barriers to the enjoyment of women's rights.
We have therefore chosen “Beijing+15: Time to Address the gaps in women's rights” as the theme for today's event.
The objective of the forum is to mobilize public support to continue Amnesty International's campaign to stop violence against women as an essential step to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Gender equality and women's rights are only partly and very poorly reflected in the MDGs. To ensure meaningful progress on the MDGs, governments and related authorities have to address structural human rights issues such as denial of sexual and reproductive rights, the right to be free from all forms of gender-based violence, discrimination against women, women's unequal status in law and/or practice and lack of women's participation in decision-making at various levels.
International Women's Day is a time to review the work done, celebrate achievements chalked over the years, plan for the future and look forward to greater opportunities. But the question we should be asking is - “Is there something to celebrate?” I believe the question may be debatable with various answers and comments from various people. In my view the answer is “Yes and No”.
For me the mere creation of bodies, institutions and promulgation of laws aimed at monitoring, reporting and regulating or addressing issues affecting women are great achievements. Examples of such world bodies are the UN Commission on the Status of Women, (CSW) and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In Ghana we can make reference to such achievements as the intestate succession law 111, the creation of such institutions as the Ministry of Women's Children's Affairs, the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit, and the passing of the famous domestic violence law, encouraging and increasing rate of the girl child school enrolment and retention particularly in the rural areas, not forgetting the gradual but the steady increase in the numbers of women who occupy high offices in our country etc.
All these initiatives I believe are aimed at improving the status of women with the view to making our families, communities and entire society happy places to live in by both men and women and children. Amnesty International, Ghana would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our governments for their efforts in this direction. We would also like to pat the shoulders of civil society organizations, the media and all peace loving individuals for keeping up the campaign to stop violence against women in our country which ultimately culminate in the above initiatives.
But I will also say “no” to the question above because there are still some yawning gaps to bridge before we can get there. Despite the successes achieved we still continue to witness gender based violence and abuses against women and girls. Notable among such gender based violations and abuses include denial of sexual and reproductive rights, discrimination against women, women's unequal status in law and/or practice, lack of women's participation in decision-making at various levels, targeted sexual abuse of women and girls during ethnic conflicts and wars, existing and persisting cultural and traditional practices which degrade the dignity of women etc.
We would like to assure you that we at Amnesty International will continue to collaborate with you all in our efforts towards attaining this noble goal – equal rights for women and all.
As one of its campaign strategies, Amnesty International collects signatures of individuals calling on relevant authorities to quickly address any human rights violations and abuses identified within their jurisdiction. We have identified some of such violations and abuses, one of which is calling on the President of Chad to take measures and increase protection for Sudanese Refugee Women and Girls in Eastern Chad. We would like to encourage you to study these petitions and provide your signatures, based on your conscience, for us to pass on to the Presidents and the relevant authorities.
Amnesty International, Ghana would like to use this opportunity to call on our Hon. Minister Women's and Children's Affairs and the Hon. Minister of Education to institute investigation into alleged gender based abuses on-going against girls and women in some of our schools, colleges and universities (such as soliciting sexual favours from female students in return for high marks/grades) and to bring the perpetrators to face the full rigors of the law.
Similarly, we would like to call on the Minister of Defence, the Chief of Defence Staff and the High Command of the Ghana Armed Forces to investigate into and make public the circumstances leading to the alleged raping of girls and women in Nalerigu, Northern Region of Ghana by some soldiers who were assigned responsibility to maintain peace in the Bawku ethnic conflict. Those identified to participate in such heinous crimes should be brought to face the law of land.
Amnesty International, would also like to call on the Government, the Bawku Traditional Leaders, opinion leaders in Bawku to make all efforts to end the ethnic conflict immediately in order to bring peace to all, especially women and children who are usually the most negatively affected by such conflicts.
We would also like to call on our Traditional Leaders and Authorities to abolish all forms of traditional and cultural practices that negatively affect women in order to make our society a happy place for us all.
On that note, I welcome you all from your various institutions and wish you a very good and fruitful participation and discussions at this public forum.
Good luck to you all and I thank you all for making time to participate in this forum.
Thank you again.
Lawrence Amesu
Director,
Amnesty International, Ghana
March 5, 2010