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Contributions from
the Column
Tribune
NGOs: Under attack
Ghana: Protecting women and children
Exogenous shocks: When governments are powerless
04/2005
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[ Ghana ]
Protecting women and children
A campaign against commonplace and traditional forms of gender-based violence is gaining momentum in Ghana. Women’s rights groups are pushing for change. They oppose witch hunts, support rape victims and design preventive projects. The movement is currently campaigning for a legal reform to criminalise domestic violence.
[ By Gabi Waibel ]
In Ghana’s capital Accra, several women were murdered in 1999 within a period of just a few weeks. The killings were apparently unconnected. As women’s feelings of fear and powerlessness turned to rage, they took to the streets and marched in protest to Parliament. They accused police and government of not taking the killings seriously. Some activists founded an informal network called Sisters’ Keepers demanding that the murderer be called to account. After his arrest, the initiative began campaigning against all forms of gender-related violence.
A short time later, Dorcas Cocker-Appiah und Kathy Cusack (2000) published a study on domestic violence and institutional sanctions. It was the first-ever investigation of its kind at the national level. The authors made a distinction between violence in the private and in the public sphere. In contrast to the United Nations’ focus on physical, sexual and psychological forms of violence, the researchers in Ghana also included socio-economic and traditional aspects of force.
One of the document’s conclusions was that incidents of violence in Ghana often occur at home and that they are generally viewed as “family matters”. The social structures in which domestic violence is rooted, support the concept of men having power over women and of adults having power over children. Violence is tolerated in this context – particularly if exercised by the husband or used to control children’s behaviour. According to the data, 33 percent of Ghanaian women become victims of physical violence. Sexual abuse is experienced by 27 percent, while 27 percent likewise suffer psychological abuse at home. The study also showed that the victims rarely speak out about their experiences, and that, at most, ten percent of them report domestic violence to the authorities. The police tend to brush aside such complaints and pending court proceedings are often cancelled “as mutually agreed between families”.
As early as 1998, the government had begun setting up Women and Juvenile Units (WAJU) in the police force. They are meant to deal with violence against women and children. However, the skills of these units remain limited – as do their resources. Nonetheless, the WAJUs serve as strategic partners for civil society organisations fighting domestic violence.
Some organisations inform victims about their rights and provide counselling services. It is a daunting challenge to build up the human resources needed for this purpose. Moreover, new procedures have to be established. A key task is to protect those women and children who are at risk. The Ark Foundation, a gender advocacy and human rights organisation, initially set up provisional shelters for victims and later established a full blown refuge for abused women and children. This facility was the first of its kind in Western Africa. Personal safety has the utmost priority, and those in need can stay as long as necessary. However, Ghana’s inadequate institutional structures make issues of funding, professionalisation and rehabilitation a far greater challenge than would be the case in Europe, for example.
The Ark Foundation faces huge problems when children are born as a result of violence or incest. After all, there is no formal system of foster parenting in Ghana. It is therefore difficult to find families who are prepared to take in an unrelated or even traumatised child. Adoption procedures are troublesome and the authorities often lack the necessary skills.
Capacity building within government agencies remains a core challenge. Non-governmental organisations make efforts to train police officers, court officials, journalists, doctors and nurses. They want to raise awareness of domestic violence aspects. Topics covered include the various forms that violence can take as well as intergenerational and gender-based power structures. A training manual (Ark Foundation/WISE, 2001) elaborates on how best to advise and support victims of violence.
Civil society organisations are also pressing ahead with a sensitization campaign they call “breaking the silence”. They are applying advertising material, radio and TV spots and also spread their message through press conferences and programmes for churches and schools. Large demonstrations have raised public awareness. The media have begun to report on sexual crimes, spousal murders or violence against children on a more regular basis. Previously unmentionable topics such as incest or sexual abuse are now discussed in public.
Rural challenges
Initially, the various activities of the women’s organisations only focused on a few urban centres, even though the national study by Dorcas Cocker-Appiah and Kathy Cusack in 2000 had revealed that rural areas were particularly violence-prone. For this reason, the independent Gender Studies and Human Rights Centre chose three villages to start community-based pilot projects on violence prevention. As a first step, Community Based Anti Violence Teams (COMBAT) are established. The Centre then trains members in legal, psychological and sociological issues, preparing them to act as contacts for victims of violence. The prevention groups also seek contact with chiefs, church ministers and imams, as well as with the leaders of local women’s and youth organisations. It is important to involve traditional institutions and forms of family guidance and conflict mediation in anti-violence activities. The groups also engage government agencies turning them into partners for violence victims. Government officials are particularly important for those who seek legal prosecution of crimes (after a case of rape for instance).
Introducing new options to prevent and sanction domestic violence requires a lot of hard work. More action is needed, but it all takes time. Women and children are often staying in almost unbearable situations, simply to ensure their basic survival. Women who leave their husbands usually lose their children and have to return to their parental home, at least temporarily. Only rarely are they welcome there.
Specific local conditions influence the individual projects. For instance, accusations of witchcraft are a traditional form of violence in Northern Ghana. For decades, outcast camps have accommodated victims. Mainly older women and a few men seek refuge from banishment and lynch justice. Relatives or neighbours accuse them of witchcraft, blaming them for various grievances. The alleged witches are chased away from their home villages, supposedly to protect the community from more bad luck. The alleged witches are put into camps, or even killed in extreme cases. In their new surroundings, they live as outcasts, abandoned to a life of poverty and deprived of all social contact outside the camp.
It is no easy task to tackle this unmentionable subject. It touches on deep-seated fears and questions people’s belief systems. In 2002, a trail-blazing, locally-initiated Anti Witchcraft Allegation Campaign demanded that the human rights abuses related to this practice be treated as a criminal offence (Schauber 2003). But tolerance and acceptance of violence are widespread, and victims have few options of defending themselves against such injustices.
For the organisations fighting gender-based violence in Ghana, the draft law of the Domestic Violence Bill is an important next step. The reform is designed to give victims greater protection and to outlaw spousal violence. The paragraph that defines marital rape as a crime has met with strong opposition, as some segments of the public even ask whether there can be such a thing. In order to promote the reform, a new network of organisations and individuals was founded two years ago. It has proved more successful than any other before, lobbying Members of Parliament as well as raising awareness in the general public. The network can be trusted to mobilise all members for press conferences and similar events. Its unusual strength is probably based on the fact that all members agree that focussing on legal reform is the core common cause. This has turned the “DV Bill” into a symbol of women struggling to change established power structures. Their movement has already achieved a lot and, thanks to the peaceful and democratic conditions that prevail in Ghana, it can be expected to achieve even more in future.
Dr. Gabi Waibel
is a sociologist. She works for the Centre for Development Studies in Bonn. Before, she spent five years in Ghana as an expert on gender issues for the German Development Service (DED).
gwaibel@uni-bonn.de
References:
The Ark Foundation / WISE, 2001:
Working with Survivors of gender-based violence, a manual for counsellors and service providers, Accra
Cocker-Appiah, Dorcas and Kathy Cusack, 2000:
Violence Against Women and Children in Ghana, Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre, Accra
Schauber, Almuth, 2003:
Magie als Konflikt. Hexenanschuldigungen und ihre Folgen, in: DED Brief, 1, p.44-46
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