State Of Juvenile Justice In Ghana - MBA Foundation

Ghana still remains one of the very few countries in the world without an elaborate governmental policy on the administration of juvenile justice. A visit to the only senior correctional centre /bostal home in the country will leave one heart broken.

Juveniles are generally believed to be amenable as compared to adult offenders. They often overestimate their understanding of issues while underestimating the consequencies of their actions, it is for this reason that special provisions must be made to separate juveniles from adult offenders and make the juvenile justice process less adversarial relative to the adult criminal justice system.

However the juvenile justice system in Ghana suffers a lot of very serious issues which need to be looked at now in order to achieve the intent and purposes for which it was established.

The lack of a comprehensive governmental policy on juvenile justice administration has left the country with no clear direction as to where we are and hope to be in relation to the management of juvenile delinquents in the country, even though we as a country were first to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), pledging to put in place all measures and processes to safe guard and protect the inalienable rights of our children and future generation. Juvenile detention centers just like the adult prison suffer the same maybe worst fate considering the fact that the former houses minors.

Training programs that run at the senior detention center such as mechanical engineering, welding, vulganizing, carpentry, tailoring, general electrical works among a host of others all do so at minimal capacity as equipement has been the major challenge.

Juvenile offenders who enter the system today just like our educational structure, seem to learn to move higher the ladder as they often find themselves in adult prisons upon being released as their amenability is not adequately exploited.

The absence of juvenile police or specially trainned police personnel also continues to be a major hindrance in the progress of the system. The rights of juvenile offenders are most often than not violated during detention/intake.

Several other issues detected by the MBA foundation and indeed other establishments such as the commonwealth human rights initiative continue to hamper the efforts of child rights activist and governments own efforts to promote and protect the rights of children in the country.

Legal aid , counselling and a lack of political will could easily be cited as examples of the drawbacks affecting progress in this regard.

Surprisingly much attention lately have not been given to juvenile offenders as have been given adult offenders.

Our country seems to be seated on a time bomb, heating up to explode if we do not as a matter of urgency begin to adopt serious measures towards mitigating the trend.

We at Mfound shudder to think of the state of future generations of our country should this issues continue to exist.

We on that note and by this article appeal passionately to the government, philanthropists, all activist and particularly the media in the wake of the observance of the international day for the unborn child, to throw more light on the status and nature of juvenile justice in the country,to at least speak up to draw more attention to the boiling issues and to join the fight to form a formidable front to safeguard the fate of the unborn ones and our nation as a whole.

Salifu Mba Mustapha
Coodinator
MBA foundation
[email protected]
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