Domestic Violence Policy Advocacy Held

A two day policy advocacy meeting held in the implementation of the domestic violence Act,2007, Act 723 has been held in Accra under the auspices of the National Advocacy partnership led by the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC).passed by parliament on 21^st February  2007 which became operational  from 3^rd may 2007.

Mrs. Juliana Azumah  Mensah  Minister of women and children’s Affairs in her presentation said, the ministry of women and children’s affairs will develop a national policy and plan of action (NPPoA) to operationalised  the DV Act for effective implementation , and that copies of document has been made and sent to respective MDA’s to acquaint themselves with their responsibilities with respect to the plan and make the required budgetary allocations in their budgets.

She noted that, a DV national secretariat has been established with a (13) members management board  which comprises representative from the MDA’s and the CSO’s.

She said, activities that have been carried out completely to date by the National Secretariat and Management Board include, Translation and printing of the DV Act into six (6) official Ghanaian languages; Akan , Ewe, Ga ,Dagbani, Hausa, and  Nzema  of which two thousands of these copies are being distributed to the regions through their Regional Directors.

She stated that, a one day meeting for the judiciary and enforcement agencies has been organized on their role in the implementation of the DV Act.  

She mentioned that, a recent request for individual institution to write a cabinet memo detailing the activities or the projects each Ministry want to undertake which will create jobs and building of shelters put down by MOWAC .

She stressed on the need to engage and train professionals ,counselors ,clinical psychologist and ADR expects, and that they continuously need to  train police personnel, judges ,doctors, teachers and even students, as listed down in the NPPoA she added.