26 BENEFIT FROM FIDA PROGRAMME (MIRROR, PAGE 34, MARCH 13, 2010)

From George Ernest Asare,Mamponteng

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana), in collaboration with Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has held a capacity building programme on fundamental human rights issues and access to justice and principles of good governance for 26 youth in the Kwabre District of Ashanti.
The programme, dubbed ‘FIDA Ghana Improving women’s access to justice’, was also meant to empower the participants with the requisite knowledge and information on their rights, as well as the legal tools to enable them defend and claim their rights at all times.
It was also meant to increase women and young people’s awareness on their sexual and reproductive health rights and the effects of the HIV AIDS menace, as well as creating a mechanism that would enable the beneficiaries to realise their constitutionally guaranteed rights for the broader goals of poverty reduction and development.
This, according to the project managers, would enable the beneficiaries to collaborate effectively with members of their respective communities and educate them on issues relating to human rights and access to justice.
At a durbar organised at Mamponteng for the passing out of the 26 youth including 10 females, the Project Co-ordinator, Mr Bawa Faisal, pointed out that access to justice was one of the fundamental principles upon which good governance rested.
The durbar involved the discussion on major human and right abuses within the district, International and national laws that affected the rights of women and children such as The Domestic Violence Law, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Principles of human rights and relevant sections of the 1992 Constitution.
It also involved issues on marriages and divorce laws in Ghana, as well as the PNDC Law 111 on inheritance issues, rape and defilement, challenges of women who are infected or affected by HIVAIDS and sexual reproductive rights of women and its impact on society.
Mr Faisal said, “about two-thirds of the Ghanaian population have little or no access to courts as a result of the inability of government to provide adequate number of courts nationwide”.
He said inadequate courts forces women in rural communities “to use the customary legal system that in most cases is patently patriarchal and often not in their favour”.