“Abolish all forms of negative practices” – Group to traditional/religious leaders

Championsof Change, an advocacy group championing the course of girls and young women on ensuring access to equal rights and opportunities have called on traditional and religious leaders to denounce all forms of negative practices.

The group which consists of Chiefs, queenmothers and Religious leaders from Ashanti, Northern, Eastern, Greater Accra, and Upper West Regions of Ghana working under the Girls advocacy Alliance project urged colleague traditional and religious practices such as Child Marriage, Exchange marriage, betrothal, elopement, abduction, domestic servitude, female genital mutilation, widowhood and other practices that violates the rights of women and children. Speaking at the closing ceremony of a three-day conference in on gender based violence on the theme “Eliminating Gender Based Violence, The Role of Traditional and Religious Authorities”, Representative of the group, Bagzaawaa Alhassan Issahaku Amadu called on the government to also to adequately resource the law enforcement agencies and other agencies such as DOVVSU, Social welfare and other related state agencies.

“We also urge all religious denominations to support children born in Ghana, irrespective of their birth circumstance to have equal opportunities to the inheritance of their parents”, he said. The group also called on the media to do more in exposing perpetrators of gender based violence and persuade opinion leaders who truncate legal processes against perpetrators of such abuse.

Also speaking exclusively to Atinkaonline.com, Project Manager for Plan International Ghana, who are partners of the conference, Anna Nabere explained that Plan International Ghana has used different stakeholders and strategies to advocate for issues related to gender based violence. According to her, Champions of Change are a perfect group for the promotion of social norm change since gender based violence are embedded in traditional and religious practices. She noted that these religious and traditional leaders are the custodians of these beliefs and practices.

“Champions of Change consists of Chiefs, queenmothers and Religious leaders and so using them to promote the needed change is a smart strategy to us. We have a number of them across the regions we want to implement these projects. The chiefs have already started leading, discussing and educating their various communities on very sensitive issues”, she said

Source: Click Here