By Gifty Amofa, GNA
Accra, Feb. 21, GNA - Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo, the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has hinted that the Domestic Violence Shelter would be completed soon and made accessible to victims.
She said government had given a new office building as well as GHc10 million to that effect.
This came to light at a roundtable discussion to mark the world day of social justice, which falls on February 20, organised by the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) and the Ark Foundation.
It was under the theme: “Full Implementation and Compliance of Domestic Violence Act (Act 732): Government, Parliament and Judiciary Responsibilities”.
The Act, which was passed in 2007, was to institute criminal sanctions for perpetrators of Domestic Violence (DV) and offer remedies for victims as well as improve Ghana’s compliance with its international human rights obligations.
The Domestic Violence Secretariat, the Management Board, as well as the Domestic Violence Fund, were launched to ensure government’s compliance to the Act.
“Ideally, our mandate us a social protection organisation is to protect victims of Domestic Violence by providing shelter and other interventions such as skill training where necessary and reintegration where possible,” she said.
“However, this remains only but a dream since the only DV shelter is not operational and the fund does not have enough money to run the shelter coupled with lack of professional staff and this does not allow the Ministry to track and follow-up on cases reported”.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo said the Ministry had done a number of education and stakeholder meetings, among other sensitisation programmes, but DV still persisted and expressed surprise how the DV Act had been implemented.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo appealed to all to get on board the fight against domestic violence since it did not know the rich or poor, gender, colour, creed or one’s status in society but cut across all cultures and affected all people.
According to a research done on Domestic Violence in July 2016 by the Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom indicated that DV had effect on victim’s ability to work, go to school, level of confidence as well as resulting in feelings of living in fear.
The research was done on incidences of DV, attitudes, determinants and consequences and carried out on behalf of the Gender Ministry, Ghana Statistical Service and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research.
Mrs Twum-Ampofo thanked development partners, especially the Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands, for supporting the DV Secretariat over the years and called on them to help make it operational.
Mr Andrews Barnes, the Australian High Commissioner, commended CDD-Ghana and Ark Foundation for putting together the programme.
He said the DV Act needed political pressure and will to implement adding that his country also had cases of Domestic Violence.
The High Commission, he said, had committed funds to help construct a safe haven for DV victims in Ghana.
Professor Kwasi Prempeh, the Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, said there should be enough awareness on the Act, among other things, for its full realisation.
Dr Angela Dwanema-Aboagye, the Executive Director of the Ark Foundation, said the public needed to know the report on the DV Fund, where it can be accessed and direct donors as to where to give their donations.
Superintendent Adolphine Dzansi, in-charge of Prosecutions at the Domestic Violence and Victim’s Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, appealed to the Government to make available more clinical psychologists for domestic violence victims as the Unit had only one for the whole country.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection should support victims to get their medical forms endorsed to aid prosecution, she said.
GNA
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