Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF
Ghana), on Tuesday called on the Government to use Affirmative Action to address the inequalities of women representation in politics.
Mrs Bernice Sam, National Programme Co-ordinator of WiLDAF, said Ghana had used Affirmative Action since independence to address the imbalances in education, health and work however, measures to improve the political
representation of women had not been commensurate to the serious inequalities being addressed.
She made the call when presenting a petition under the WiLDAF Ghana and Partners of We Know Politics Project signed by 3,673 signatories throughout the country to Mr Joseph Yieleh-Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in Accra.
The petition called on the Government for 50 per cent out of the 30 per cent government appointees to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to women.
In addition, government should demonstrate its commitment towards fulfilling its promise to give at least 40 per cent appointments to women
before Election 2012 with the current women appointments to public office at 22 per cent.
Mrs Sam said available statistics indicated that only 19 women were appointed out of the 230 Parliamentarians, 12 out of the 170 Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Chief Executives, one out of the 11-member Ghana Police Council and three out of the 25-member Council of State.
She commended Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs for the Affirmative Action measure in training 20 women from every assembly to contest the up-coming assembly elections.
"The plan though laudable may not necessarily increase women representation in the 170 assemblies as government has no control over the electorate in the choice of who becomes their representative.
"However government has control over appointment of assembly members, the Sector Minister should lobby government to utilise its power to increase representation of women in the assemblies," she said.
Mrs Sam said to achieve gender equality there was the need for emphasis on special interventions for women's empowerment which international instruments and national laws obligated States to achieve.
She said many international instruments focused on general human rights including, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women which specifically addressed women's human rights within the
context of their lived experiences.
Mr Yieleh-Chireh who received the petition agreed that government could utilise its power to increase representation of women in the assemblies but noted that sometimes government was constrained though that was no excuse.
He therefore urged women to show commitment and leadership qualities in all their endeavours so that their appointments would be justified.
On the dwindling number of women in politics, Mr Yieleh-Chireh said all hands should be on deck to remedy the situation through encouragement and the willingness of Ghanaians to refrain from past prejudices and gave the
assurance that government would ensure that more women were appointed to public office.