The Chief Justices of Ghana (CJ), Her Ladyship Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has call for an end to all forms of discrimination against women in Ghana.
She observed that despite the existence of several laws in the 1992 constitution and international instruments, Ghanaian women continue to suffer all forms of discrimination in the society. Article 12 of the 1992 constitution explicitly states fundamental human rights while article 17 provides protection against discrimination and also enjoins the state to take steps to end all forms of discrimination on grounds of gender, religion, race, color, and ethnicity, social and economic status.
The CJ said when she addressed female Students of the University for Development Studies (UDS) at the Tamale campus as part of activities marking Women’s week celebration organized by Women commission of the female Students Representative Council (SRC).
Mrs Georgina Wood told the students that, the laws exist for the purpose of preserving order in the society and defending human rights of all citizens.
The Court of Appeal Judge, Avril Lovelace-Johnson who read the chief justice speech said apart the constitution; there are several laws that created to protect the rights of children’s workers and women among others.
The chief justice however lamented that Ghanaian women still confronted with discriminating laws and practices such as employment, marriage, labour and technology, access to resources such land among others.
She was worried that under the customary law, a woman can be divorce on grounds of witchcraft but same does not apply to men. Such practices the chief justice said are permitted by the customs and religion and are discriminatory and at the end undermine the security and protection of women in marriage.
The international human rights instrument according to the CJ has not been fully in cooperated into the national laws let alone talk about enforcing.
She observed that even though as a country, there has been some significant inroles in offering better protection of women, there is still remain a lot more to be done to address it. The major challenge the CJ noted is Ghana’s full commitment to implementing the beautiful laws on the status books.
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