The fight against child sexual abuse across Ghana is being severely crippled not by a lack of legislation, but by a chronic failure to enforce existing laws, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection has revealed.
Contributing to a statement on child sexual abuse on the floor of Parliament, Hon. Agnes Naa Momo Lartey noted that rising public awareness is finally exposing the severe systemic failures within the country’s protective frameworks.
“This is a call in the right direction and a call for action because this is nothing new. However, because of awareness, it’s helping us as institutions, groups, and individuals to identify the guts and implementation of our laws because in the wake of all that is happening, it is not the absence of laws but rather the effective implementation of the laws that is identified as the gut,” she told Parliament.
The Gender Minister expressed deep concern over the safety of children nationwide, warning that no child is immune to the growing threat. She cautioned that failing to take decisive measures puts both young girls and boys in grave danger across educational institutions and local neighbourhoods alike.
“Right Honourable Speaker, it will interest you to know that in as much as our girls are not safe in our schools, they are not safe in our communities. If we do not take decisive actions to stop this menace, our boys are equally not safe,” Hon. Lartey warned, stressing that having a boy child does not spare families from the menace if society fails to rise to the urgent call.
Highlighting the recent Obuasi SecTech incident as a catalyst that brought the long-standing crisis back into the national spotlight, Hon. Lartey advocated for a collective, whole-of-society strategy. She emphasized that combating child sexual abuse requires absolute commitment from all sectors and cannot be left solely to individual agencies or state machinery.
“The need to build robust systems, the need to be there for each other, the need to report these cases without interference from religious and traditional authorities especially political authorities and members of this house. We all know what is happening in our various constituencies,” she stated.
Hon. Lartey strongly backed growing demands for the immediate establishment of a national sex offenders register. Commending journalists for their relentless efforts in exposing abuse and driving accountability, she urged the public to stay vigilant, adding, “If you see something, say something and it helps us to bring perpetrators to book.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
