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Ghana: Civil Society Organisations Asked to Hold Gov't Accountable
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Public Agenda (Accra)
3 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007
Patricia Ofori Atta
Civil society groups in the country have been challenged to hold both governments and donor agencies accountable to promoting human rights and self-determination of women.
This can be done by allocating adequate resources within the government budget and mobilizing local government resources for activities related to the elimination of violence against women.
The Public Relations Officer of the International Federation of Female Lawyers-Ghana (FIDA), Mrs. Efua Adottey, was speaking at the launch of "Violence against Women & HIV/AIDs Information Manual" compiled and written by Vanessa Brocato and Angela Dwamena-Aboagye of the Ark Foundation, Ghana with support from the Africa Women's Development Fund (AWDF).
It was also to mark this year's 16 Days of activism against gender based violence under the theme "Demanding implementation, challenging obstacles: Ending Violence against Women".
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an international campaign organized between November 25 and December 10 every year to educate people on the need to stop violence against women and respect human rights.
The Ark Foundation, Ghana is an advocacy-based human rights organisation that focuses on women and children's human rights protection.
Various women activist groups and the sector ministry in charge of women and children's affairs were at the dinner to show solidarity with the Ark Foundation
According to Mrs. Addotey, ensuring that laws are in place is essential, but equally important is the implementation of the law to make certain that the cycle of violence is broken for sustainable human development to take place.
She said it is vital that funding from national governments and international agencies address the issues of gender violence by allocating resources to tackle the implementation of laws such as the Domestic Violent Act.
She recalled that for the past five years funding programmes to promote women's rights have been dwindling rapidly as donor agencies constantly review their gender programme and unsuccessfully integrate gender issues into other programs.
Despite limited resources, she said most women non-governmental organisations have dedicated their lives to promote and enhance women's rights.
"FIDA-Ghana has noted that women with their achievement in addressing the housing needs of victims of violence have done a lot in the country", she said.
The Executive Director of Ark Foundation-Ghana, Mrs. Angela Dwamena-Aboagye stressed that using a human rights-based approach to fight violence against women is a key component of the 16 Days campaign.
"A human rights-based approach provides a common framework that brings together women with diverse experiences to collaborate on a wide array of creative strategies for change," she said.
She noted that this year's theme is a greatest challenge for women activists because adequate resources which would be needed to assist them to expand their visions in advocacy is limited.
Launching the manual on HIV/AIDS, the Executive Director said there was a link between gender and HIV/AIDS and said that women were more vulnerable to the infection because of their genetic make up.
She said the 'Nite Out' was organized to give information to women groups, NGOs, Policy makers and to bridge the gap between women groups and policy makers.
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She expressed her appreciation to all those supporting the course of women empowerment and asked for stronger network between them.
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