William N-Lanjerborr Jalulah
30 October 2008
WOMEN IN the Region have strongly pledged their commitment and support to ensuring a violent-free election in the Bawku Municipality and its environs, as the nation goes to the polls on December 7.
At a stakeholders' meeting on women's contribution to peaceful elections 2008, organised by the regional office of Department of Women, the participants, mainly women, observed that women and children were the worst affected in terms of election violence, because most of them were either killed or maimed.
Against this background, there was an urgent need for women to play significant roles in ensuring peaceful elections in the Bawku Municipality and its environs, where politicians seem to have been avoiding, due to its volatile atmosphere.
At the end of the meeting, the women resolved to stage a peace march, to be characterised by peace messages and songs.
The various political parties' leaderships, as well as the various ethnic groups in the area, would also be invited to deliver messages on peace and unity.
Among other things, the women advised politicians and political parties, to adhere strictly to the political code of conduct, do their campaigns based on issues and not individuals, refrain from violent activities, and tolerate each other and each other's views, while the youth should not allow politicians to use them to spark off trouble.
While the women expressed sadness about the trauma, that women in Bawku went through during the chieftaincy conflict between the Kusasis and Mamprusis, in which some were killed, properties destroyed, the participants also condemned certain negative roles or utterances women played in conflict situations.
They, therefore, asked for support from the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, the Regional Coordinating Council, non-governmental organisations, and the security agencies, to enable them carry out a successful exercise.
Madam Paulina Abayage, Regional Director of the Department of Women, said if the peace was to be long lasting, then it was necessary to re-examine the concept of peace to include women at its centre, rather than the periphery.
She, thus, asked for the inclusion of women in all initiatives that were geared towards peace, so that they could also make their inputs.
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