MOWAC to ensure stakeholders back Domestic Violence Act 732

The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), is activating a programmed process to leverage all stakeholders behind strategies, which will enhance compliance of rules under the Domestic Violence Act 732 of 2007. Under the systematic short, medium to long-term programme, spanning a decade, the media, law enforcement agencies, social workers, governance institutions, including local government agencies, faith-based institutions, traditional authorities among others will undergo some pep-up trainings to enable them to appreciate domestic violence issues better. Mrs Hillary Gbedemah, Lawyer and Gender Rights Activist told some selected journalists from the Volta and Eastern regions at one of such trainings in Koforidua that patriarchy, belief systems, dynamics of the economy and bureaucracy, were some of the problems daunting the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. The Koforidua workshop was the penultimate of such seminars for journalist across the country. The one for journalists operating in the Greater-Accra region has been slated for the first quarter of this year. Mrs Gbedemah took participants through the National Plan of Action, intended to actuate the realization of the benefits of the Domestic Violence Act. The 36-page document, including policy, management structures for coordination and capacity building programmes for identifiable groups, listed eight expected outcomes of the policy. They are reduction of the incidence of domestic violence, higher survivor safety and protection, better access of victims to quality specialized services and higher perpetrator accountability. The rest are better responsiveness of the systems, better involvement of the community in the process and a more effective partnership among stakeholders to address Domestic Violence. Mrs Gbedemah said the document should enable the Police to manage complaints of rape, defilement and other domestic violence issues better, so that their sometimes nonchalant questions and statements such as “what did you want in his room” and “you paid the price for your style of dress” would stop. She said institutions of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and bureaucracies responsible for issues of the youth were also among groups to be tackled in the trainings to enable them to meet the exigencies of the document. Mrs Gbedemah observed that domestic violence was a very serious issue, with victims and perpetrators transcending the social strata. She invited journalist to look for and read publications on domestic violence in Ghana to enable them to reflect the situation and give more appropriate circumstances to their stories.