The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has hailed Ghana tremendous progress towards the elimination of Child Marriages.
UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director, Madam Fatoumata Ndiaye, said Ghana is one of the countries’ that had progressed towards eliminating child marriage actually because it had a framework of policies and laws in place, which were being implemented.
She said despite the successes chalked by Ghana so far, “if we do not have 100 per cent eradication then there’s more to be done”.
“Ghana had become a model of example for the rest of Africa,” Madam Ndiaye said at the end of the 2018 Girls’ Summit against Child Marriage in Accra.
The Summit, which was the second to be organised was graced by the First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo Addo; Hajia Samira Bawumia, the Second Lady and Mrs Cynthia Morrison, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Other dignitaries from across the African Continent include the first ladies of Sierra Leone, Niger, and Cote d’Ivoire. The four-day Summit was attended by over 500 participants from across Africa and beyond.
Madam Ndiaye took time off to interact with some young girls on Child Marriage.
According to UNICEF marriage before the age of 18 – is a human rights violation. Madam Ndiaye said Ghana had the leadership, which was committed towards moving forward the agenda for the elimination of Child Marriage.
She said Africa’s young people were the solution to the challenges facing the continent adding that there was therefore, the need for the empowerment of African youth to solve its problems.
She said child marriage could lead to a lifetime of suffering and that girls who marry before they turn 18 were less likely to remain in school.
Madam Ndiaye appealed to African Governments to enact laws banding Child Marriage and to make sure that sure laws were fully enforced.
She also called for more public education and sensitisation on the need to end child marriage now.
Madam Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF Country Representative in Ghana said “We need to stop talking and take concrete actions to end Child Marriage in Africa”.
