CHILD PROTECTION,
SAFEGUARDING AND ABUSE
DEFINITION OF TERMS I
• Child: a person below the age of 18. A child is defined in the
Ghanaian context in relation to the family and concept of
childhood. Thus, a child is one who is still largely dependent on an
adult for the necessaries of life
• Child Abuse: refers to any act of omission or neglect or treatment
that may be injurious to the mental and physical wellbeing of a
child. Manifestations include child dumping, child neglect, child
labour, incest, and rape, ritual murder of children, indecent assault,
sexual exploitation, child street vending, excessive corporal
punishment, and ill treatment
• Child Protection: seeks to guarantee the right of all children to a
life free from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect.
DEFINITION OF TERMS II
• Fit Person: An adult who has high moral character and integrity and
of sound mind capable of looking after a child and has been
registered by a probation officer or Social Welfare as being able to
provide a caring home for a child.
• Forensic: means relating to the use or application of scientific
knowledge or methods and techniques to the investigation and
solving crimes for use in the courts of law.
• Loco Parentis: Acting as parent/ guardian.
• Sexual abuse: occurs when dependent, developmentally immature
children and adolescents participate in sexual activities that they do
not fully comprehend, to which they are unable to give informed
consent, and that violate the social taboos of family roles
INTRODUCTION
• Millions of children worldwide from all socio-economic
backgrounds, across all ages, religions and cultures suffer violence,
exploitation and abuse every day (UNICEF (2012).
• Children are exposed to different types of violence, exploitation and
abuse, armed violence, trafficking, child labour, gender-based
violence, bullying each with their own characteristics.
• Violence, exploitation and abuse occur in the homes, families,
schools, care and justice systems, workplaces and communities
across all contexts (UNICEF 2012).
• Child abuse is deeply rooted in cultural, economic and social
practices (Krug EG et al., eds. 2002).
• The short and long term impact of child abuse include among
others, failure to thrive as infants, physical injury, fearful,
acute anxiety, psychosomatic disorders, behavioural problems
and delayed development.
• CHILD ABUSE IN GHANA
• Over 90% of children report having experienced physical violence,
both at home and in the school environment (Ghana Statistical
Service 2011).
• A 2009 study conducted in selected schools found that 14 per cent
of school children surveyed had been sexually abused
(Government of Ghana 2014).
• Neglect, physical, emotional and sexual abuse and exploitation of
children are widespread problems (National Child Protection
Study 2013)1.
• There were 1,198 cases of defilement reported to Domestic
Violence and Victim Support Unit of Ghana Police (DOVVSU) in
all regions in 2015.
• Non-maintenance or neglect was the most prevalent child
abuse related offence reported to DOVVSU in all regions for
the period of January to December 2015.
• Children in Ghana are abused in the home and within the
domestic setting, in school, even at the Early Childhood Care
and Development (ECCD) centres in the orphanage, in the
community, and in the hospital
PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM ABUSE
• A child protection system is as a set of laws, policies,
regulations and services needed across all social sectors to
support prevention and response to child abuse.
• These systems are a set of usually government-run services
designed to protect children and young people who are
underage and to encourage family stability.
• At the level of prevention, their aim includes supporting and
strengthening families to lower the risk of child abuse.
• When abuse occurs, the aim to provide competent and
compassionate care to affected children.
• The goal of child protection is to promote, protect and fulfil
children’s rights to protection from abuse, neglect,
exploitation and violence as expressed in the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child and other human rights,
humanitarian and refugee treaties and conventions, as well as
national laws
• What are positive and negative factors for child
development?
• There is a direct relationship between healthy child
development and the presence of:
• a) risk factors (i.e. threats to physical or psychological well-
being)
• b) protective factors, many of which are potentially present
within the local community
• Children (and adults) are seen as resilient when the available
protective factors help to shield them from the worst effects
of risk factors.
• Healthy development may be slowed down or even prevented
by the presence of risk factors in a child’s environment. These
may affect the children themselves, their parents or both, but
are likely to have an impact on the child’s development either
way.
• Protective factors encourage and enable healthy development
and may be directly protective of children or may act through
the protection of their parents.
Factors that promote growth:
• Good parental support and guidance
• Support from social network, including extended family, community
members, teachers, etc
• Educational climate that is emotionally positive, open and supportive
• Appropriate role models that encourage coping skills
Factors that pose risks to a child’s healthy growth and development:
• Experience of violence, abuse, separation, fear
• Loss of family and friends
• Poor diet and nutritional status
• Lack of opportunities for education
• Excessive burden at an early age
SITUATION OF CHILD PROTECTION IN
GHANA’S HEALTH SECTOR’S
• Child protection efforts in the health sector are on a limited
scale and are mainly carried out by development partners and
the Ghana Health Service.
• An assessment of the capacity and gaps of the health sector in
early 2016 established that most of the health facilities in the
six regions lack facilities for adequate care for children who
experience abuse.
• Professionals in the health sector have gaps in providing
services for child abuse that need to be addressed while
resources to adequately support the perceived ‘few’ reported
cases are never enough.
• The health sector assessment established that child abuse is
not comprehensively covered in pre-service and in-service
training of healthcare providers of various cadres in the
country. The assessment however found that the health sector
has the personnel, institutions, and resources that could be
enhanced to boost child protection. This among others is by
health workers integrating skills and information sharing on
parenting, impact of trauma, injury prevention etc. in their
roles at all levels.
EXISTING LEGISLATION FOR PROTECTION OF
CHILDREN
• International Instruments
• Convention on the Rights of the Child, and related protocols.
• The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
• International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182,
•Regional Instruments
• African Charter on the Human and People’s Rights,
• African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, (1990)
•National Instruments I
• The 1992 Constitution of Ghana
• Domestic Violence Act 732 (2007)
• Persons with Disability Act 715 (2006)
• The Human Trafficking Act 694 (2005)
• Juvenile Justice Act 653 (2003)
• Labour Act 651 (2003)
• Children’s Act 560 (1998)
• Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 554 (1998) Institutions and
Agencies
• Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service
National Instruments II
• Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (2013)
• Gender-based Violence Court
• The Girl Child Education Unit of the Ghana Education
Service
• Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana
Police Service
• Who should protect children?