ILO charges Ghana to double efforts to end worst forms of child labour
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has directed Ghana to double its efforts in ending the worst forms of child labour, particularly in the cocoa and fishing sectors.
The Organisation also requested for detailed information on the practical measures Ghana has taken to eradicate the worst form of child labour, including the sale and trafficking of children.
Ghana is to provide that information before the next session of the Organisation’s Committee of Experts on the Applications of Conventions and Recommendations to be held from August to September 2022.
This comes on the heels of concerns raised by the ILO to the effect that only ten persons involved in child trafficking had been prosecuted in Ghana since 2015.
Thus, the ILO has urged the Government of Ghana to pursue efforts to strengthen the ability of law enforcement officials, including the Police, prosecutors, and judges, to undertake thorough investigations that would lead to the prosecution of persons engaged in the sale and trafficking of children.
Meanwhile, ILO, under the framework of Trade for Decent Work (T4DW) is equipping Ghana’s Judiciary and Labour Inspectors with the skills to actively take part in the elimination of child labour through the application of international labour standards as pertains in the country’s laws.
The project is aimed at improving the application of the ILO’s fundamental Conventions in European Union (EU) trading partner countries through improved labour relations and working conditions.
The training follows an ILO request that Ghana provides information on the activities undertaken within the framework of the T4DW project, particularly about child labour in the cocoa sector and the results achieved.
Dr Akua Ofori Asumadu, National Coordinator of the Trade for Decent Work Project, ILO, attributed Ghana’s situation to the lack of political will to deal with the worst forms of child labour in the country.
She said those challenges had to be addressed to stem the negative implications on trading with the international community.
In April this year, Mr Bright Wireko-Brobby, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, who was speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement in Accra to review Ghana’s Hazardous Activities Framework (HAF), posted that the Government was committed to ending all forms of child labour in the country.
“We are particularly interested in the business of finding possible ways towards the elimination of child labour,” he said.
Source: GNA