Members of Upper East Regional Child Protection Committee are calling on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to expedite actions over a petition they presented to review the age of consent to sex to matchup with the legal age of marriage. The age of consent to sex according to Criminal Jurisprudence of Ghana is 16, allowing adolescents up to the age of 16 to engage in sexual intercourse. However, the Children’s Act of Ghana defines a child as one who is below the age of 18 and should not know or engage in sex.
Sadly, girls who became pregnant at age 16 as per the age of consent to sex are not allowed to get married per the legal age of married which is 18 years as captured in the Children’s Act of Ghana. The implication of the disparities of age of consent to sex and the legal age of married is teenage pregnancies.
It is on this basis that Members of the regional Child Protection Committee are calling for a review of the law of age of consent to sex to tally with the legal age of marriage.
Upper East Regional Director of Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and member of the committee, Abdulai Jaladeeen disclosed this during a celebration of the International Day of the Gild Child in Bolgatanga.
According to him the committee presented a petition to the sector minister May this year. “We are appealing to the Gender ministry to lead the crusade such that a memo can be sent to parliament for this law to be amended”
But a delay to review to the age of consent to sex according to him paves way for culprits of child sexual abuses to go scot free.
“Here is the case an adult has made a gild child pregnant at the age of 16. Yes the law can catch up on you but some of these people go behind to influence parents and even the girl. And once the girl appears before the judge and says I consented, the judge cannot do anything again, prosecutors can’t do anything”
However, Lawyer Jaladeen added that “if the law is changed from 16 to 18 [and] if you impregnate someone who is below the age of 18 it means that there is no way whether you have millions of cedis to convince the parents or the girl.”
The Mr. Jaladeen also called for a review of the Children’s Act to give stiffer punishment to perpetrators who gives their girl child out for marriage to serve as deterrent to others.
“The find is so minimal. If you are convicted, you are sentence to a find of Ghc500. Having convicted of marrying out a girl child then there should be a provision that suggests as to how you will put the girl back in school such that her education will not be hampered”
By: Joshua Asaah|A1radioonline.com|Ghana
