Thursday, September 16, 2010
Children need maximum attention
Accra,"The child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. The child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society…in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity."
-from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Every child has a right to their childhood - a hopeful existence free of exploitation, violence, neglect, and extreme poverty.
Children need education, health services, consistent support systems as well as love, hope and encouragement; all these things and more are required in order to experience childhood to the fullest, and to eventually develop into healthy, capable adults.
... (more) Sept. 14, GNA - Reports about the violation of children's rights have been echoing throughout the ten Regions in recent times. Alarmingly, children are too often the recipients of violence in their own home, where a high percentage of abuse - sexual, physical, emotional, and psychological - takes place.
For the full and harmonious development of their personality, children should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. The child should be fully prepared to live a responsible life in society; in the spirit of peace, dignity, freedom and equality. Children should not always be told what to do and what to think; they should be able to affect decisions that concern them.
Every child has a right to their childhood, a hopeful existence free of exploitation, violence, neglect, and extreme poverty. Children need education, health services, consistent support systems as well as love, hope and encouragement. All these and more are required in order to experience childhood to the fullest, and to eventually develop into healthy, capable and productive adults.
However, millions of children and young people in Ghana are exploited in different ways. Children are forced to work on farms, in factories, in backrooms, on the street, and even in the sex trade. "But why does all this happen?," one may ask. Conditions of constant conflict or poverty inevitably give rise to societal ills. Furthermore, children are easy targets for exploitation because they are dependent on adults and social institutions for their development, usually unaware of their rights, and unable to vote or voice their concerns formally.
Although human rights agencies and organizations, grassroots groups, media, educators, global leaders, and youth groups are making great effort to promote children's rights, more need to be done to enforce those rights in the local communities throughout the country. The Government must monitor and enforce the existing conventions with consistency, and people in Ghana need to learn and care about the children because they are the future leaders of this great nation.
(A GNA feature by Comfort Sena Fetrie)