Vice President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has called for an end to violence in all forms against girls and wom­en across the country.

“We must choose to end violence against all persons, especially women and girls. This in what­ever form it may take: whether human trafficking, domestic violence, accusations of witchcraft and the resulting instant justice, child marriage, female genital mutilation, or sexual violence,” she said.

Delivering the keynote address at a dialogue to mark the International Women’s Day in Accra on Saturday, Vice President Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, noted that it was only when the violence against girls stopped that they would grow to become the worthy women the society wants them to be.

The dialogue which brought together women across all spheres of society including traditional, academia, governance, diplomacy, business amongst others was on the theme ‘Resetting the agenda for women: Accelerating Action on Women’s Rights, Equity, Empowerment’.

The Vice President said beyond decrying the unhelpful practices that stagnate the growth and de­velopment of girls, there was the need to interrogate the rationale behind them.

She said ignoring the needs of girls and women and obstructing their pathways to advancement, supporting and glamorising systems that keep them at the bottom kills their dreams and constitutes unacceptable forms of violence against them and require urgent action.

“We deserve to live in dignity. Let us be intolerant to violence against women and girls in our homes, schools, places of work and worship, communities and nations. It is time for men and women, and boys and girls to choose to end such violations of human rights,” she stressed.

According to Vice President Prof. Opoku- Agyemang, if the legal systems were strengthened where easy access to justice guaranteed the advance­ment of girls and women and education on what nations lose by pretending that these problems do not exist, Ghana would be making progress to end violence against women.

Calling on society to take decisive actions towards lasting and effective solutions to the plight of girls and women, the Vice President said gender sensitive pedagogy in schools and training facilities was essen­tial in addressing the gaps in curbing the persistent problem of the dropout rate of girls from school; one of the sources of violence against girls.

As part of measures to keep girls in school, she said government was committed to reintroduce the free sanitary pad policy which was first introduced in 2014 when she was education minister.

In her view to think that the natural menstrual cycle posed a threat to the advancement of girls in education was unacceptable.

“This government will do whatever is in its power to advance the wellbeing of girls and women, by creating opportunities for our advancement and self-fulfillment, regardless.

The Deputy Representative, Operations at the UNICEF, Anne Kariuki, commended Ghana for the gains made in gender parity over the years with its legal framework and urged that it did more to meet the provisions of the Affirmative Action Act.

What remained a blot, she said was that one out of six girls got pregnant before their 18th birthday; a situation she said was unacceptable and needed investment to overcome.