Ghana Declares Zero Tolerance For Child Marriages

Nearly one out of four women in Ghana is getting married while still a child making it one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the highest prevalence rate. This is according the Ministry of Gender Children and social protection. At the maiden stakeholders meeting on Ghana�s Anti-Child Marriage in Accra on Wednesday the Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur in a statement read on her behalf, called for a zero tolerance for child marriage in Ghana �and hope that this project will be an important stepping stone in eliminating this practice from our nation. The minister emphasized that �child marriage is a grave breach of a child�s human right and contrary to international and Ghanaian national law�. The project seeks to establish a national strategic framework and coordinating mechanism for eliminating the incidence of early and forced marriage and its related consequences and to increase preventive action by traditional leaders, religious bodies and communities to address the issue. The 3-year project is a UNICEF funded project through the Dutch Government UNICEF country Representative ,Ms Susan Namondo Ngongi reiterated that �marriage is no business for children� and thus called for the need to put the issues of child marriage on top of the political agenda. Naa Professor John Nabila, President of the national house of Chiefs also emphasized the need to actively involve traditional leaders in a united national effort at ending the phenomenon. Statistics available to Weekend Finder on the situation of child marriages in Ghana indicates that 22 percent of women aged 20 to 29 years, in Ghana got married before the age of 18 years. For those between the ages of 30 to 44 years, 30 percent of them were married. Between 2005 and 2010� the Domestic Violence Victim and Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service recorded 69 reported cases of forced marriages. This figure according to the Gender Ministry is far below the real situation on the ground. It is widely believed that most of these incidents of forced marriages remain unreported to the relevant authorities. The Ministry also observed that the bulk of the few cases that are reported to the police are usually settled out of court.