NGO condemns violence against children

CHALLENGING HEIGHTS, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) that envisions a world where the rights of every child to education and a family life are realised, has condemned all forms of violence, corporal punishment in schools and homes against children.

In a statement released to mark the International Day for Non-Violence, the NGO has also called on schools and families to refrain from subjecting children to all forms of violence.

The statement, signed by Mr David Kofi Awusi, Advocacy Manager of the organisation and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) last Tuesday, said every day, hundreds of children suffered violence, and mentioned the most common forms of violence against children as “child labour, child trafficking, domestic slavery and an outdated culture of disciplining children by corporal punishment.”

It said there was good evidence to show that inflicting pain through corporal punishment as a way of disciplining children was a very weak method for correcting wrong behaviour compared to other methods.

Existing evidence

 “Contrarily, existing evidence shows that corporal punishment leaves emotional and psychosocial scars on victims, reduces mental development and school performance, and is likely to make children more violent,” it said.

The statement recalled the case of a 15-year-old boy who dropped out of school and shortly afterwards, was trafficked to work as fisher boy on the Lake Volta.

 “He dropped out of school due to several beatings he endured at the hands of teachers, one of which left him partially blind in one eye. Driven away by violence, the boy spent over two years in child labour, enduring all forms of abuses at the hands of cruel and greedy traffickers,” it said.

 The statement called on citizens to learn alternative behavioural management approaches rather than resorting to the primitive use of inflicting pain as a way of instilling discipline.

–GNA