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Celebrating 30 years of Convention on Rights of the Child

The world, during the week, celebrated 30 years since the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), was formulated. It also marked Ghana’s historic ratification of the convention.

Indeed, Ghana has more than one reason celebrating the anniversary. She commemorated it as the first country to ratify the convention after its adoption in 1989.

Since ratifying it, the convention has helped to strengthen the country’s laws including the Children’s Act 1998, Act 560, Juvenile Justice Act 732, Human Trafficking Act 694 and Domestic Violence Act 732.

As a matter of fact, the CRC has had tremendous impact not only on Ghana but the world and has become the most widely ratified international human rights treaty.

As of last year, a total of 182 countries around the world had ratified the CRC, except the US. This unprecedented acceptance of the convention clearly shows a wide global commitment to advancing children’s rights.

The CRC has in no small measure also changed the way children are viewed and treated as human beings with a distinct set of rights instead of passive objects of care and charity.

It is for these achievements, that, the world must celebrate the convention which, to a large extenT, is responsible for the decline in, for instance, infant mortality to rising school enrolment around the globe.

As the world celebrates the important milestone, the occasion must serve as a reminder of the pledges made by the UN member countries 30 years ago and for them to take note that much more remains to be done.

While there is the need for new ideas and approaches towards children’s issues due to the ever changing world, the Convention nevertheless must serve as a guiding document for all nations.

For, in many countries around the world, children continue to face challenges with access to education, health care, violence, poverty, climate change among others.

According to UN statistics, more than 50 million children around the world have been uprooted from their homes due to violence; 263 million others do not attend school while six million under five died from preventable diseases in 2017.

There is no doubt, therefore, that there is more work to be done to confront the challenges that face children around the world.

Happily, in Ghana, the government has implemented policies geared towards the protection of children from economic, sexual exploitation, violence, child labour and other forms of abuse.

Admittedly however, there is more work to be done to protect children and provide for their welfare in rural and remote areas of the country.

To achieve the goals, The Ghanaian Times advocates the establishment of child protection systems including social welfare scheme for children to complement the laws and regulations already in existence.

We commend the government and all child right and advocate for how far they have come in their effort to provide protection for children who are the future leaders.

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