Child labour still prevalent in Ghana

By Charles Takyi-Boadu Posted: Friday, June 13, 2008
In spite of the fact that various international conventions, and the Children’s Act of Ghana, guard against child labour, there are still traits of its existence in the country.
It is estimated that approximately two million of children living in Ghana, are engaged in child labour. This represents 20% of the entire children’s population of the country.
Almost 250,000 of these children were said to be living under hazardous forms of child labour. Meanwhile, Article 28 (2) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic prohibits labour, which is considered to be injurious to the health, education or development of the child.
With yesterday marking World Day against Child Labour, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Accra, took the opportunity to remind Ghanaians, and foreign nationals alike, that “we are currently not fully honouring our commitment to protect our children from hazardous and exploitative forms of labour.”
This was contained in a statement, signed by the Project Coordinator of Human Trafficking and Child Labour Projects, at the LRC, Dzifa Ami Gakpleazi.
Ghana is signatory to three international treaties, which ban certain practices of child labour, including the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
Additionally, Ghana has passed its own laws on child labour.
The Children’s Act is one of such laws in Ghana, which bans all types of exploitative labour, and echoes the 1992 Constitution’s prohibition, by defining this type of labour as that, which denies a child of health, education or development.
Its also bans a number of child labour practices, that it considers to be ‘hazardous’.
In spite of these, the LRC believes that all forms of exploitative labour (whether explicitly listed as hazardous by law or not), continue to persist in the country.
It considers these facts as extremely disappointing, not just because of the hard reality that exists for child labourers in Ghana, but also because the laws to protect them have already been passed.
Though it is fact that many of the root causes of child labour, go beyond detection and enforcement, poverty, lack of economic opportunities, social mobilisation and other macro-economic and demographic issues are all major factors.
The LRC has entreated Ghanaians, and for that matter central government, not to forgo improvements in the enforcement of the law.
The Children’s Act, which requires any witnessed infractions be reported, was passed a decade ago, whilst the Labour Act, which was passed into law in 2003, required regular inspections of work places, to check incidences of child labour.
Though these laws should have made children working in hazardous conditions a rarity, the LRC noted that “sadly, this is not the case.”
“The fact that we have acknowledged this responsibility as a country, and still continue to avoid tackling the problem headlong, makes this situation more troubling,” it emphasised. As a people, it noted that if Ghanaians are not noticing, reporting or enforcing these infractions, then our well-thought out laws would be nothing but “meaningless pieces of paper put together.”
It has thus stressed the need for the number of labour inspectors in the country to be increased, or better still be proactive.
It has also stressed the urgent need, for government to establish fund and children’s desk, at the office of the Attorney General, with the hope that such a division could use the power of the office, to coordinate with other programmes and projects, and focusing their energy on issues relating to protection of children.
“Not only will these provide more resources to address the problem, but the Children’s Desk, when properly funded, can take responsibility and be evaluated, depending on the improvements that are made,” it noted.
The LRC further stated that Ghana, as a country, needs more resources to ensure specialised professionals, who will be held accountable.
In the last analysis, it emphasised that “it is time for the government, not just to acknowledge its responsibility, but to take it.”