Organisation calls for support to fight human rights abuses

An advocacy organisation has stepped up its fight against human rights violations with the launch of two preventive crime educational materials.

These flyers contain some specific criminal offences that bother domestic and sexual violence/abuse and their maximum jail terms.

There’s also “Say No to Child Abuse”, a safe book for children from four to nine years.

The organisation, Ohenewaa Human Rights Advocacy, has, therefore, called for support from members of the public for the project.

Copies

Addressing the press in Accra on Wednesday, the Founder of Ohenewa Human Rights Advocacy, Mary Ohenewaa Afful, said she was seeking to print and distribute at least 10 million copies of the preventive crime flyers, and one million copies of the abuse book for children.

“This is a national assignment. I need support from the government, politicians, religious bodies, corporate organisations, donor agencies, international organisations and the people of Ghana.

“I have said many times that it is not enough even to arrest and prosecute offenders and make them suffer the penal consequences.

My problem is the victim of abuse.

What happens to them, the damage caused to their person and the violation of their boundaries?

How do they handle their health and perhaps the psychological implications?” she asked.

Law

Ms Afful called on the State to implement Section 8(3) of the Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (ACT 732) on free medical care for victims of abuse.

She said there was no budgetary allocation for that, causing victims to pay their own medical bills when they go to the hospital, adding that “the whole abuse issue has been neglected”.

New materials

She believed that the new materials would cater for more people, including schoolchildren from upper primary to the senior high school level, market men and women, trotro and taxi drivers, head potters or any other group not captured in her earlier preventive crime educational materials.

“We want everyone to prevent abuse/violence or crime.

We also want everyone to report all cases of abuse/violence to the appropriate law enforcement agency -the Ghana Police Service (GPS)- as mandated by the laws of Ghana.

Manual

The founder of the non-profit advocacy platform said on July 7, 2023, it launched its Preventive Crime Training Manual for teachers, pastors and tertiary institutions, among others.

“We also launched a booklet to help adults identify abuse in children and the mandatory reporting guidelines.

It has been six months now.

On November 16, 2022, my organisation had a free training for ministers and their spouses,” she said.

Ms Afful said domestic violence was an act committed by someone in the victim’s domestic circle, which includes partners and ex-partners, immediate family members and friends.

“Abuse is not love; it is one person in a relationship having power and control over the other person.

The cycle of violence that exists in a relationship can be challenging to break if there is no intervention and external support systems for the victim,” she said.