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District and Divisional police commanders have been advised to stringently enforce laws against gender-based violence to curb the phenomenon.

The Director General, Human Resource Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mrs Beatrice Vib-Sanziri, who gave the advice, stated that Ghana had ratified international conventions on women and children and it behoved law enforcement agencies to be abreast of international practices in exposing crimes.
 
This was contained in a speech read on her behalf at the end of a two-day workshop for 30 district and divisional police commanders in Accra.

The workshop, which was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), was aimed at broadening the knowledge and skills of the participants on sexual and gender-based violence. They were drawn from the Eastern, Greater Accra and Western regions.

They were taken through topics such as the underlying principles of human rights, the role of the police in responding to gender-based violence, human rights violations associated with gender-based violence and child abuse and laws on domestic violence. 

International laws

DCOP Vib-Sanziri said although gender-based violence was pervasive, it was one of the least prosecuted offences due mostly to cultural practices and the influence of family relations.

Data available at DOVVSU indicate that 29 convictions were recorded out of the 1,111 reported cases of defilement in 2012.

It is for reasons of such nature that the workshop sought to improve the skills of the officers with particular reference to responding to the cries of victims.

“We cannot deny knowledge of the obsolete and crude widowhood rites that cause negative physical and psychological effects on women, Mrs Vib-Sanziri said and added that the police were not to sit aloof and wait for complaints before they arrested offenders.

“We have to gather intelligence in order to arrest culprits,” she said.

Harmful cultural practices

The Coordinator of DOVVSU, Chief Superintendent of Police, Rev. Mrs Laurencia Akorli, said gender-based violence required pragmatic steps to eradicate.

She urged traditional authorities to abolish outmoded cultural practices such as widowhood rites and female genital mutilation.

She expressed concern that while gender-based violence undermined the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims, it remained shrouded in a culture of silence.