The Volta Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Ms Lena Alai, has decried the continuous abuse of the rights of women and children despite relentless campaigns to address the problem.
She said violent cultural norms such as widowhood rites, trokosi and puberty rites were obnoxious, disgraceful and dehumanising, and should be stopped.
Ms Alai was addressing the International Day against Domestic Violence at Tefle in the South Tongu District.
She hailed the Domestic Violence Act of 2007 as a landmark promotion of human rights in Ghana, but expressed worry that some communities still remained less concerned about such infringements.
Ms Alai said human trafficking, illiteracy, rape and marital violence compounded the debacle against women and children, impeding general societal development.
She, therefore, urged families to support widows and care for orphans instead of forcing dehumanising cultural practices on them.
Mrs Helen Akorsah-Sarpong, District Director, Ghana Health Services, said these harmful practices sometimes led to mental derailment in victims, other chronic ailments and even death.
Traditional rulers
She said such violations were of great concern to health practitioners and appealed to traditional rulers to help modernise or abolish such norms.
Mrs Akorsah-Sarpong advised parents to accept cultural practices that would lead to the progress of their children�s future and to avoid those that forced them into early marriages and domestic servitude.
Mr Raphael Soglo, District Director, Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ), appealed to victims of abuse to seek redress at the CHRAJ, police, the court and Department of Social Welfare.
Togbe Nakakpo Dugbaza, the Paramount Chief of Tefle, blamed non-enforcement of laws on such practices as a factor for their continuing entrenchment.
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