The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, two non-governmental organisations dedicated to gender-related issues of global concern, have renewed calls for the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill into law.
According to the two, Ghana faces a setback in development with the failure to promote gender equality; a situation they concur will only serve to institutionalise the marginalisation of women.
The Affirmative Action Bill, when passed, will among other things increase the participation of women in key decision-making roles.
According to a lawyer and member of FIDA Ghana, Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, the country would experience more comprehensive policies.
“It has been proved, through research and data from several countries that when women get into places of public decision-making, they think about the things that will make families run. They think about the things that will make communities develop. They think about the environment, they think about legal protection; safety. They think about safety in schools. They bring these issues to the table because they live through them. That’s because we are women. So when we are in public decision-making spaces, it’s not just because we want to be there because we are women. We are coming because we have lived experiences that show that our needs have to be taken into consideration, and often these needs cover both men and women; boys and girls.”
“When the values, intelligence, worthy ideas, and even the benefits of our socialisation are left out of national development, we have skewed development. And if there is enough data out there to show that including women in all of these public decision-making spaces, actually turns many things for good, what are we waiting for? We need to take a decision as a country; it’s either we like our women, or we don’t,” she added.
Speaking at the same press conference, the Programme Coordinator of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Ernestina Ofoe, said that successive governments have failed to pass the Bill despite assurances.
“The President, in his State of the Nation address to us apologised to us this year for not passing the Affirmative Action Bill. We are in October and parliament will have its last sitting for the year in November. As we speak, the Bill is not in parliament. During the last sitting, it was amongst the advisory bills that were supposed to be looked at in parliament. The Bill was never tabled on the floor of parliament, and they went on recess. We’re back, and we’re here again talking about this Bill, and the Bill has not even found its way to parliament for them even to start deliberations,” she said.
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) have therefore called on the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and Parliament to pass the Affirmative Action Bill before the year ends.
The press conference, which was on the theme “Call to Action: Pass the Affirmative Action Bill”, brought together lawyers, women and human right activists, and women with disabilities, amongst others.
In April 2018, the Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, called for deliberate government intervention to enable women to compete favourably on the country’s political and governance scene.
Speaking on a BBC World Questions panel in Accra, she said, “What we can do is to start by identifying, mentoring, training and supporting women to get into all kinds of positions across the board.”
Mrs Ekuful added that the law would also level the playing field for women seeking to participate in public life.
“… and by that, I do mean that we need to think seriously about the passage of affirmative action or equal opportunities legislation which will give room for positive discrimination in favour of the more disadvantaged sections of our society; women, persons with disability and the youth.”
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By: Akosua Ofewaa Opoku/citinewsroom.com/Ghana