Daily Graphic, pg.11, Tuesday, Nov. 26/08
Article: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
Four years ago, Yaaya was gang-raped by four of her schoolmates in her village, which is not far from Accra, the nation’s capital city.
She was 18 years and was just about to write her Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE), now West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), but because of the trauma that she went through and the injury she suffered, she could not sit for the examination and became a school dropout.
Today, Yaaya lives in Accra and the end result of the rape was the birth of a beautiful baby girl nine months later.
Although she used every effort possible, both crude and orthodox, to abort when she realised four months later after the sexual assault that she was pregnant, she could not terminate the pregnancy.
Now her daughter, whom she named Nhyiraba, is three years and they are leaving together in one of the densely populated suburbs of Accra.
The irony of Yaaya’s situation is that she wanted to be the first female lawyer in her village and her aim was to help promote gender justice among her people but she could not achieve her dream.
Presently, she does not have any qualification to earn her a decent job and therefore she is a petty trader.
Two of the boys who raped her are presently in the university pursuing various courses, while the other two are outside the country.
Yaaya’s situation is one of the many cases of injustices that women and girls face in the country.
Although her case was sent to the court, she could not stand the agony and ‘shame’ that she had to go through in the open court to testify and to withstand cross-examination by counsel of the accused, so she bowed to pressures from family and friends to settle the case out of court, which never yielded any positive results.
Cases of injustices to women and children are worse, especially in countries affected by armed conflicts and abject poverty, and according to the Director and Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ms Kathleen Cravero, “the justice system consistently fails women”.
She estimates that in Rwanda, up to half a million women were raped during the genocide in 1994. “Yet, only three women served as judges among the 16 permanent judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for that country. According to her, in Eastern Congo 15,000 women are raped every year.
At a colloquium on Gender Justice in Accra, Ms Cravero said such inequity extended beyond Africa, stressing that only one woman had served as a judge on the International Court of Justice since it was established more than 80 years ago.
She also observed that the 34-member International Law Commission had had no woman throughout its 55-year history until 2001, when two women were finally elected.
Explaining what gender justice was, Ms Cravero, in an address read on her behalf, said it was not only a question of granting women access to formal laws but it was about ensuring protection under the law and securing positions for women to enforce the law.
Also, gender justice, she said, penalises violence against women in all its forms; be it dispossession of their property or inequality in social, economic and political rights or physical and sexual violence.
She further indicated that gender justice also empowered women to contribute to a society based on the rule of law. It also means taking positive measures to educate women and securing them equal representation in all legal professions.
Gender justice, according to her, also means encouraging women to work as public guardians of security and justice, as well as legal professionals, arbitrators of justice and as public figures of highest moral standing in the service of their society.
On how people, especially judges, can help to contribute to gender justice and equality, she says it can be done by listening to women, stressing that the experiences and perspectives of ordinary women are crucial for understanding how to deliver justice in a meaningful way.
She says people can support action at the grass roots and points out that nothing is more important than to be observant and pay attention to efforts in the villages, in camps, municipalities and in the rural areas, and empower grass roots actors to become catalysts for national or even international change.
Also, she suggests that people can support and promote women as actors in both politics and justice institutions, adding that “we can make sure that girls have educational opportunities and remove institutional barriers to the progress in their careers”.
She also proposes that people can insist on legal and constitutional guarantees by ensuring that women’s rights are embedded in constitutions and laws, and demand that these are adhered to in policy-making and the execution of laws in courts.
She further suggests that people can speak out against inequality and injustice, saying that “each of us can ensure that in private and public settings alike we refuse to tolerate inequality and injustice for women”.
She further proposes that “we can display leadership and serve as role models”, adding that lawyers, prosecutors and judges can demonstrate their commitment, serve as an example and be inspiration for societal and attitudinal change.
She finally calls on the judiciary at large to come together to build global and regional partnerships for gender justice, explaining that “we can support partnerships and networks in our region and around the globe to advance justice for women, as equal citizens and as powerful legal professionals”.
According to a concept paper from the Judicial Service, “most often, equality for women is considered a woman’s issue. But more accurately, equality and equal protection of human rights is a societal issue. An independent judiciary that protects the rights of and is accessible to women and includes women in positions of authority is a strong judiciary that serves society as a whole”.
Although many countries, including Ghana, has national constitutions and laws, and have signed international conventions, instruments and protocols, which all seek to protect and promote equality between men and women, the reality, as the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood, puts it, “it is a mirage”.
Women such as Yaaya and their children are the ones at the disadvantage as the former UN Secretary General once said, “when women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately: Families are healthier; they are better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is true of communities and, eventually, of the whole country”.
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