Seven Districts in the Upper East Region have no physical working office space for the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service while ten have no offices for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
This was contained in a league table compiled by the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM), a non-profit-organisation, in conjunction with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice with support from Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service.
The league ranked all fifteen district assemblies in the upper east region in relation to their preparedness to combat Sexual and Gender Based violence.
Districts including Pusiga, Binduri, Garu, Tempane, Builsa South, Bolgatanga East and Talensi, the report noted have no functional offices to respond to and address issues relating to sexual and gender based violence.
Speaking in an interview on Bolgatanga based Yem Radio monitored by dreamzfmonline.com, Executive Director for the Widows and Orphans Movement Fati Abdulai noted that some districts have made provisions for CHRAJ offices but did not do same for DOVVSU offices. However, some districts including the Kasena Nankana East district have made available office space for both institutions.
She cited Bawku Municipality, Bawku West District, Bolgatanga Municipality and Builsa North as MMDA’s that have CHRAJ offices but do not have physical offices for DOVVSU.
The situation, she stressed is adversely affecting public education on human rights and the protection of rights of persons who get abused.
“It is important that as district assemblies, we actually put in place these office spaces that allows them to decentralize to ensure that they are able to serve our people by first of all educating them to know their rights and second of all to ensure that people that do the wrong thing do not go unpunished,” she said.
According to her, the inconvenience and cost of accessing these offices from a distance could be discouraging for affected persons who seek their services.
She added that “these occurrences motivate perpetrators to continue violating the rights of other people.”
