The frequent change of policy makes it mandatory for an Affirmative Action Law to address the marginalisation of women in public and economic life, Mrs Sheila Minka-Premo, Convener, Affirmative Action Bill Coalition, has noted.
Mrs Minka-Premo also noted that the current representation of women in Ghana’s Parliament was a reflection of the gender imbalance in national life, adding that key targets for gender parity would be missed if the Affirmative Action Bill was not passed into law this year.
Addressing a News Conference in Accra on Thursday, February 3, 2022, she said Affirmative Action was not new in Ghana and traced its roots to the 1960s when 10 women were allowed to represent the ten regions of Ghana in the then Legislature.
The News Conference was organized by ABANTU for Development, a women’s rights organization in Ghana, in collaboration with the African Woman Development Fund (AWDF) on the theme: Increasing Advocacy Towards the Passage of Ghana’s Affirmative Action Bill into Law.
Mrs Minka-Premo cited Article 17 (4) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, which gives Parliament the power to enact laws that are reasonably necessary to provide for the implementation of policies and programmes aimed at redressing social, economic or educational imbalance in the Ghanaian society, as a justification for the call for an Affirmative Action Law in Ghana.
Furthermore, Mrs Minka-Premo referred to Article 11(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which requires all state parties to combat all forms of discrimination against women through legislative, institutional and other measures.
She reminded the Government of Ghana of the need to remain committed to the various international legal instruments to which it had signed on, pledging to ensure a 30% to 40% representation of women in key decision-making spaces
She said the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal five (5) (SDG 5) equally identified gender equality and the empowerment of women in political, economic and public life as goals of, and tools for, sustainable development
She cited Article 4 and 7 of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which Ghana ratified in 1986 and Agenda 2063, which is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future and the Optional Protocol to the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance as the basis for passing an Affirmative Action Law in Ghana.
The Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, she said, also required member countries to empower women to participate at higher levels of public decision-making as well as ensure that adequate attention was paid to their economic, socio-cultural, infrastructural and political concerns.
Furthermore, Mrs Minka-Premo said, Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 called for a more inclusive society where all the citizens were actively involved in decision making in all aspects and where no child, woman or man was left behind or excluded, on the basis of gender, political affiliation, religion, ethnic affiliation, locality, age or other factors and which stressed the need for “an Africa, whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.”
She, therefore, urged all stakeholders including cabinet, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), Parliament, Civil Society and the Development Partners to work together for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into Law before the end of the year 2022.
In an address delivered on her behalf at the opening of the News Conference, Dr Rose Mensa-Kutin, Executive Director, ABANTU for Development, urged all stakeholders to work together for the Affirmative Action Bill to be passed into law before the end of the year 2022.
Dr Mensa-Kutin noted that due to Ghana’s historical patriarchal system, the systemic marginalization of women in decision-making, women’s burden of care and a host of other challenges confronting women, it was impossible for women to attain the required numbers for effective participation and representation.
There was, therefore, the need, she said, to employ other strategies to promote and ensure equal representation, democracy and sustainable development, adding that an Affirmative Action Law presented itself as a guaranteed strategy to that effect.
She said Ghana should not go into another election without an Affirmative Action Law and that the Bill, if passed into law, would inure to the benefit of all Ghanaians rather than to only women.
In her remarks, Ms Faustina Acheampong, Director, Department of Gender, MoGCSP, disclosed that the Affirmative Action Bill had been submitted to cabinet for a re-approval.
The Chairman for the occasion, Mad. Kinna Likimani, Director of Special Programmes at Odekro, a Parliamentary Monitoring Organization and also the Programmes Officer for Mbaasem Foundation, which works to support and promote African women’s writing, said Ghana needed the remedy of law as an intervention to close the gender gap, adding that political will was key in the provision of this remedy
ABANTU for Development is a women’s rights organization in Ghana, while the AWDF is a Pan-African grant making organisation that supports the realisation and fulfillment of African women’s rights through funding of autonomous women’s organisations on the continent.
The drafting of Ghana’s Affirmative Action Law began as far back as 2011 but the Bill is yet to become law after it failed to pass in 2017 and 2010.
On Wednesday, September 26, 2018, ABANTU for Development in collaboration with the AWDF launched a Project to strengthen advocacy for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into Law.
Source: G.D. Zaney, Esq.
