According to the Project Manager of the Girls Advocacy Alliance Project (GAAP), Mrs Anna N. Nabere, many young people were going through various forms of GBV but they were unable to talk about it due to the culture of silence, engendered by stigma, that existed in many Ghanaian communities.

Mrs Nabere made the remarks at a one-day ‘Safe Space’ conference organised by Plan International Ghana in Accra to climax the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (GBV).

The conference was intended to create awareness of reproductive and sexual rights of young people as well as to enable the participants to share their experiences and knowledge on GBV.

The event brought together 50 young boys and girls from junior high, senior high and tertiary institutions across the country to dialogue with stakeholders from government, private sector and civil society organisations on how to end GBV.

The GAAP project seeks to prevent and protect girls and young women from gender-based violence, child marriage and commercial sexual exploitation and enhance their economic empowerment.

Abuses

Mrs Nabere observed that even when young people were bold to talk about their abuses, in most cases, they did not get any support even from their immediate families, with many ending up being stigmatised.

“When parents and guardians become judgmental towards their children who reported GBV, such acts discourage the children from speaking up when they are abused sexually.”

The Country Director of Plan International Ghana, Mr Solomon Tesfamariam, said girls constituted the greater percentage of people who suffered GBV, pointing out that young people, especially girls, needed a way to communicate to their parents when they were abused.

He said some of the abuses happened within the victim’s family and because many young people did not know where to report to, they continued to endure such abuses, stressing that “when children know the law and how they can benefit from it, it will enable them to report cases of abuse.”

Mr Tesfamariam expressed the worry that reporting cases of GBV remained a challenge in many parts of the country and on the continent mainly because of cultural and religious issues.

“The only way we can help young people is by communicating frequently by making sure that they are aware of their reproductive and sexual rights,” he said, and added that “awareness is very critical.”

He also called for a strong legal framework to ensure that perpetrators of GBV “are accountable and come to justice” and whatever happened to them be communicated widely.

Communiqué

In a communiqué, the youth called on the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General to strengthen the systems for delivering justice and expedite adjudication of cases on rape and defilement to ensure justice “is served to survivors.”

They also encouraged parents, guardians and families to provide the necessary support in seeking justice for survivors, especially in defilement cases.