Violence against women violates country’s constitution

The Upper East Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Abdulai Jaladeen, has called on state institutions and civil society organisations (CSOs) to evolve effective strategies to halt the lynching of widows and old women suspected to be witches in rural communities.

According to him, it was also important for the citizenry to be made aware that mob action and other forms of violence against women constituted a breach of the 1992 Constitution, particularly the human rights of any individual no matter the gender.

Mr Jaladeen made the call during the International Widows Day (IWD) celebration in Bolgatanga. It was on the theme "Healing the wounds of widows through kindness and love".

The IWD is held on June 23, every year. In Bolgatanga, the day was observed by the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) with support from ActionAid, Ghana.

The director further pointed out the need for traditional rulers and opinion leaders to help expose perpetrators of violence against people, particularly the vulnerable segment of the population society.

"Let us shy away from violence, discrimination, name calling of widows and women because it is bad and the laws frown upon them” Mr Jaladeen observed.

Appeal

The Founder of WOM, Madam Betty Ayagiba, appealed to the government to include windows in all interventions.

She said the organisation was rolling out an intervention to help address the challenges of high school dropout among children of widows.

She equally entreated security agencies, religious bodies and society to support widows.

The National Coordinator of the Anti-Witchcraft Allegation Campaign Coalition-Ghana (AWACC-Ghana), Mr Ken Addae called for a stronger women's front in northern Ghana to help fight against all forms of discrimination against women including widows and orphans.

Experiences

The Leader of the Widows Network in the Talensi Nabdam District, Madam Beatrice Adongo, and the Secretary to the network, Madam Mavis Zoogah, were both of the view that more needed to be done in rural communities to safeguard the rights of widows and commended WOM for supporting widows.

Earlier, the widows went on a route march to highlight the need for society to be sensitive to their plight. They carried placards some of which read: "widows are not bad luck women", "Be kind to widows they are your mothers","Widows are not witches", "Do not lynch widows" among others.