A day's workshop has been held for stakeholders in the Gushegu Municipality to deliberate on existing laws and policies that protect children and the roles of decentralised departments and NGOs in combating child early and forced marriages (CEFM) in the area.

The workshop, which was the third in the series to be held in the Municipality, was organised by the Pan-African Organisation for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children (PAORP-VWC), an NGO, and sponsored by Kinder Rechte Afrika, an organisation based in Germany.

Participants were drawn from the Gushegu Municipal Assembly, community child protection committees, youth groups, Department of Social Welfare, Ghana Private Road Transport Union, amongst other interest groups.

Key decisions taken during the meeting included the need for stakeholders to ensure that by-laws enacted by the Gushegu Municipal Assembly to deal with CEFM and child trafficking were implemented as well as the need for the Assembly to consider establishing Rehabilitation Centre for Social Integration of all those, who would fall prey to CEFM and child trafficking to make them part of the community.

Others were that the Assembly should enact by-laws to discontinue the use of MP3 players by the youth in the Municipality to reduce child truancy and waywardness and the need for traditional authorities and politicians to stop using their positions to interfere in the enforcement of laws.

The rest was that the Department of Social Welfare, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and PAORP-VWC, must work effectively to address issues relating to CEFM and child trafficking in the Municipality.

Ms Yeli-oni Priscilla, Gushegu Municipal Officer of PAORP-VWC, expressed the need for cordial relationship between parents and their children to enable the children to open up to their parents and make constructive contribution and decisions on issues affecting their welfare.

Mr Mohammed Jafaru, Gushegu Municipal Director of CHRAJ, who facilitated the workshop, advised parents to stop the habit of forging the ages of their children just to enable them to qualify to register and vote.

Mr Jafaru said this act was unlawful, adding that it also had negative effects on children in future.