The Madina La-Nkwantanang Divisional Police Command has inaugurated an interviewing room on Friday for women and children to give them a conducive atmosphere to narrate their ordeals to the police.
The interviewing room which is yet to be furnished with modern equipment was built by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and it is one of three put up in Kasoa and Ashiaman.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Director General, Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP), Ken Yeboah, said the level of violence perpetuated against women was alarming and unacceptable.
He said in 2020, 1047 girls were defiled while 305 women were raped and that it was a source of worry as the actual numbers could extremely be disturbing.
COP Yeboah said the gender-based violence was a violation of the rights of victims and remained a health issue that cut across boundaries of economic wealth, culture, age and sexual orientation.
He stated that gender-based violence disproportionally affected women and girls, as well as men and boys, adding that “wherever gender-based violence occurs, it is a major obstacle for the achievement of gender justice.”
The CID boss said it poses a serious threat to democratic development and public health and it was a critical barrier to achieving sustainable development goals, economic growth and peace.
In a speech read on her behalf, the UNICEF representative in Ghana, Anne-Claire Dufay, said child-friendly interview rooms would strengthen the paths to justice for thousands of children, particularly girls.
She said the rooms speak to the strong commitment of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in making justice accessible to the most vulnerable groups in the society.
She mentioned that every year in Ghana, close to 15,000 cases of violence against children were reported to law enforcement institutions and that during the last 12 months, one in five girls aged between 15 and 19 reported experiencing at least one act of sexual violence in Ghana.
Mrs Dufay was confident that the private interview rooms would provide a more comfortable and a safe space for victims when telling their stories.
She indicated that since November, her outfit had inaugurated 10 child-friendly courts which were important steps to increase access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU
