The African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) hosted a high-level stakeholder engagement on 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) with the judicial service.

The event, which took place at the court complex on Wednesday, December 10, aims to unite to end digital violence against all women and girls under the theme, “Upholding Rights Delivering Justice: The Judiciary's role in Curbing Gender Based Violence in Ghana".

Delivering a keynote address on behalf of the Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, the chairperson of the Judicial Service Gender Equity Committee, Justice Sophia Rosetta Bernasko, said the shift demands a new era of justice.

”We have entered a new era of violence, and we must enter a new era of justice," she said.

She encouraged stronger partnerships and accountability across state institutions, emphasising that GBV cannot be eliminated by any single institution.

Justice Bernasko elaborated on how the dignity of women and girls in Ghana is being violated every single day, stating that one in three women in Ghana has experienced a form of physical, emotional or sexual violence.

“One in three women in Ghana has experienced physical, emotional or sexual violence. This is not just a number. It is a neighbour, a church member, a market woman, a student, a professional, a wife, a daughter. Many of us here know someone who has suffered one form of violence."

She also touched on how violence is evolving from being private to now being online.

She shared that these forms of violence travel through the sharing of intimate images without consent, online threats, cyber stalking and relentless digital humiliation.