Participants at a day’s training seminar on juvenile justice in Kumasi have called for the enforcement of laws protecting the rights of children towards the promotion of juvenile justice in Ghana. They also advocated the enforcement of the provisions of the Children’s Act 560 and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), to protect children from abuse and discrimination. Participants were drawn from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, the Attorney General’s Department, Department of Children, Social Welfare, the Judiciary, the Ghana Education Service as well as child rights advocate groups. The event, which was organised by the Defence for Children International Ghana Section (DCI-Ghana) on Thursday, sought to sensitise State authorities and professionals working on juvenile justice about the General Comment Number 10 (GC 10) of the Children’s Right and Juvenile System. It also aimed at building capacities of participants to enable them to promote and monitor the use of GC 10 in the implementation of the UN CRC. The GC 10 that was issued by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in February 2007, expressed areas of juvenile justice policy, which needed to be implemented by State parties which ratified the UN CRC. These included the prevention of juvenile delinquency, diversion from judicial proceedings, age of criminal responsibility, assurance of fair trial, prohibition of death penalty and life imprisonment without parole as well as deprivation of liberty as last resort. The participants said the lack of proper structures and effective monitoring mechanisms hampered the promotion of juvenile justice the country. They called on political parties to make juvenile justice system an integral part of their campaign messages, especially in this election year to ensure the protection of children’s rights. Mr Charles Gyamfi Danquah, Ashanti Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), called for strict adherence to the provisions of the UN CRC to promote and protect the rights of children. Dr Elizabeth Archampongma Archampong, a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), urged child rights advocates to challenge the government to commit itself to the enforcement and promotion of children’s rights. Dr Oppong-Appiagyei Ampong, Executive Director, DCI-Ghana, urged the participants to initiate concrete measures to protect the rights of children. Source: GNA