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International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI 10.1163/157181810X528003
brill.nl/chil
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1 ) e author wishes to express gratitude to the Research Offi ce, Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU),
and the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa (TISCA), Laurier Brantford, for
their fi nancial support that enabled him present an earlier version of this paper at the Africa-Europe
Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS) European Conference on African Studies at Leipzig,
Germany, in June 2009. He gratefully acknowledges that a travel award was received from a grant
partly funded by Wilfrid Laurier University Operating funds and partly by the SSHRC Institutional
Grant awarded to WLU. e author is also grateful to Prof. Rhoda Howard-Hassmann for her use-
ful comments on an earlier draft.
e Rights of Children in Confl ict with the Law in Ghana
Robert Kwame Ame
Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford Campus
Abstract
In a country where implementing children’s rights in general remains a major challenge, the idea of
according rights to children in confl ict with the law can be a daunting task. With too many other
children’s problems to deal with such as the millions of street children and child laborers, female
circumcision, and sexual violence against female children, the needs and rights of juvenile off enders
could easily be relegated to the bottom of the government’s priorities for children. Nonetheless, by
virtue of ratifying the UNCRC in 1990, Ghana has made a commitment to address the needs and
respect the rights of children in Ghana including its juvenile off enders. irteen years after ratifying
the CRC, the Ghanaian Parliament passed the Juvenile Justice Act 2003 (Act 653). What rights
does the Act accord children in confl ict with the law? Do the policies and practices of the new
juvenile justice system measure up to the standards of the Convention? ese are the key questions
addressed in this paper. e paper concludes that vis a vis the CRC, the new Juvenile Justice Act
looks good on paper but argues that there is a colossal gap between policy and practice. e paper
ends with suggestions on how to eff ectively protect the rights of children in confl ict with the law.
Keywords
children’s rights ; juvenile off enders ; social policy ; children in confl ict with the law ; Convention on
the Rights of the Child ; Ghana
I. Introduction 1
In a country where implementing children’s rights in general remains a major
challenge, the idea of according rights to children in confl ict with the law can be
a daunting task. With too many other children’s problems to deal with such as the
millions of street children and child laborers, female genital mutilation, child
marriages, detention of newborn babies at hospitals for non-payment of medical
272 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
fees, female ritual servitude such as the trokosi system, abused child domestic serv-
ants, and prevalence of sexual violence against female children, the needs and
rights of young off enders could easily be relegated to the bottom of the govern-
ment’s priorities for children. e United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child 1989
2 (hereafter CRC or the Convention), enjoys almost universal rati-
fi cation (only the US and Somalia have not ratifi ed it even though the US has
signed) that makes it the most popular convention in the world. It has become
the main standard by which children’s rights issues are measured all over the world.
Ghana ratifi ed the CRC in February 1990, making it the fi rst state to do so.
By virtue of ratifying the Convention, Ghana has made a commitment to
address the needs and respect the rights of children in Ghana including its young
off enders. What are the CRC standards for dealing with children in confl ict with
the law? What rights does the Act accord children in confl ict with the law? Does
Ghana’s youth justice system measure up to the Convention and other interna-
tional standards? is paper examines the extent to which Ghana’s current Youth
Justice System complies with international standards with focus on the examina-
tion of the extent to which the system complies with the Convention on the
Rights of the Child. To this end, the Juvenile Justice Act 2003 (Act 653),
the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560) and other recent relevant amendments to the
Criminal Code 1960 in 1994 (Act 484) and 1998 (Act 554) pertaining to youth
crime will be analyzed to determine their compliance with the Convention. But
since there is always a gap between the law on the books and the law in action,
the paper also assesses practices within the youth justice system to assess if they
are in accord with the Convention. In eff ect, this paper aims at assessing if the
CRC standards have been infused into the Ghanaian juvenile justice system with
focus on the new system introduced in 2003. It also makes recommendations for
promoting the standards of the CRC within the juvenile justice system of Ghana.
e paper starts by highlighting the rights the CRC guarantees children in con-
fl ict with the law.
II. e Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and the Rights
of Children in Confl ict with the law
For purposes of this paper, “children’s rights” are construed as those rights recog-
nized by the CRC. e Convention, which was adopted in 1989 and came into
force in 1990, guarantees children (1) rights of provision (adequate nutrition,
health care, education, economic welfare), (2) rights of protection (protection
2 ) Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted Nov. 20, 1989 (entered into force Sept. 2,
1990). See http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 273
3 ) Some children’s rights scholars e.g. Geraldine van Bueren (1998) refer to these rights as the ‘3 Ps’,
while others such as Howe and Covell (2007) describe them as the ‘4 Ps’ of the Convention (adding
‘rights of prevention’ as a separate category).
from abuse, neglect, violence, exploitation), and (3) rights of participation
(a voice in making decisions that aff ect the child). ese are the 3Ps of the
Convention. 3 In so doing, the Convention places an obligation on state parties to
provide and protect these rights.
In essence, the CRC covers all aspects of a child’s life - survival, development,
protection and participatory rights. In its declaration of principles, the preamble
of the CRC states that “… childhood is entitled to special care and assistance”
and recognizes that “the child by reason of his physical and mental immaturity
needs special safeguards and care including legal protection”. Article 3 goes fur-
ther to state that “[I]n all action concerning children … the best interest of the
child shall be a primary consideration.” is article affi rms the welfare principle
stated in the preamble and constitutes one of the cardinal principles that guides
the interpretation of the Convention. Other relevant interpretive principles
include the “evolving capacities of the child” (Article 5), which underscores con-
sideration of the age and level of development in assigning responsibilities and
participation of the child; and “non-discrimination” (Article 2) that emphasizes
equal treatment of all juveniles regardless of social, religious, political, and family
circumstances.
Whereas the preceding articles deal more generally with all categories of chil-
dren, the key articles pertaining to children in confl ict with the law are Articles
37 and 40. Article 37 prohibits arbitrary deprivation of liberty, inhuman and
degrading treatment, capital punishment, and life imprisonment of anybody
below the age of 18 years (37a), and requires that arrest, detention or imprison-
ment only be used as a last resort (37b). For children deprived of their liberty in
conformity with the law, the Convention demands that they be treated with
human dignity and in a manner that takes into account the needs of persons of
their age. ey must be separated from adult prisoners and should have the right
to maintain contact with their family (37c). Children deprived of their liberty
have a right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance as well as
the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of their liberty (37d). Article
12(1-2) guarantees these children the right to be heard in any judicial or admin-
istrative proceedings that aff ect them based on their age and maturity.
Article 40 places an obligation on state parties to promote reintegration and
the child’s assumption of a constructive role in society after his or her involve-
ment with the criminal justice system (40(1)). State parties are to ensure that a
child shall be accused or convicted only of acts prohibited by domestic or inter-
national law at the time they were committed (40(2)(a)); have legal or other
appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of his or her defence
274 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
(40(2)(b)(ii)); have his or her case determined without delay (40(2)(b)(iii)); and,
not to be compelled to give testimony or confess guilt (40(2)(b)(iv)). Further, an
accused child must be provided free assistance of an interpreter if s/he cannot
speak the language used (40(2)(b)(vi)), while state parties are required to establish
extra-judicial (alternative) measures for dealing with such children provided their
rights are respected (40(3-4)).
In summary, articles 37, 40, and 12 (1-2) of the CRC require state parties’ juve-
nile justice systems to conform to the following standards:
General:
1. accused or convicted only for acts prohibited by domestic or international
law at the time they were committed;
2. treatment with dignity and consideration of the juvenile’s age;
3. a right to privacy;
4. prompt access to justice;
5. a separate justice system for juveniles (separation from adults);
Arrest, Detention, and Court Hearing:
6. arrest and detention should be a last resort;
7. the right to challenge the legality of deprivation of liberty, and the right
to be heard;
8. a right to legal representation and legal aid;
9. free assistance of an interpreter if cannot speak the language used by the
court;
10. determination of case without delay;
Punishment and Release:
11. prohibition of the death penalty;
12. use of incarceration as a last resort;
13. cannot be sentenced to adult prison;
14. availability of alternative measures; and,
15. promoting reintegration into society.
III. How does the Ghana Juvenile Justice Act Compare with the
Standards of the CRC?
(a) According to section 1 of the Juvenile Justice Act (JJA), a juvenile is a person
under the age of 18 years; however, the Criminal Code Amendments Act 1998
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 275
4 ) Article 1(2) of the Juvenile Justice Act. e special circumstances stated in Article 17 of the Act
are: ‘when a juvenile is (i) jointly charged with an adult, (ii) charged with an off ence which if com-
mitted by an adult would attract the death penalty (e.g. fi rst degree murder), and (iii) when a
juvenile court is not constituted for an area’.
5 ) Article 3 of the JJA.
(Act 554) sets the minimum age for criminal responsibility at 12 years. is
marks a change from the age of 7 years under section 26(1) of the 1960 Criminal
Code (Act 29). In eff ect, a juvenile off ender is anybody between the age of 12 and
18 years who breaks the law. ese provisions are in conformity with Article 1 of
the CRC, which defi nes a child as “… every human being below the age of eight-
een years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier
and also Article 40 (3) (a) which demands “[T]he establishment of a minimum
age below which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe
the penal law”.
e JJA also specifi cally states that ‘a juvenile shall be dealt with in a manner
which is diff erent from an adult except under special circumstances’.
4 Consequ-
ently, the Act gives exclusive jurisdiction to the juvenile court in all cases pertain-
ing to a juvenile. As a court of summary jurisdiction, however, it cannot hear
indictable off ences. Even then, while indictable off ences involving juveniles are
handled by higher courts, in such cases sentencing can only be done by a juvenile
court even though the juvenile court can take advice from the higher court.
Consequently, Ghana’s juvenile justice system is centered around its juvenile
courts, which is separate from the adult justice system in line with the require-
ments of the CRC.
Rights when Arrested
e guiding principle of the JJA is welfare. Whereas the CRC states that the best
interest of the child shall be a primary consideration in all actions concerning
children (Article 3(1)), the statement of welfare principle in both the JJA and the
Children’s Act (1998) goes further than in the CRC. According to the JJA, ‘ the
best interest of the juvenile shall be (a) paramount in any matter concerning the
child; and (b) the primary consideration by the juvenile court, institution, or other
body in any matter concerned with a juvenile’ [article 2; emphasis added]. In a
similar language, the Children’s Act states,
‘(1) [T]he best interest of the child shall be paramount in any matter concerning
a child (2) the best interest of the child shall be the primary consideration by any
court, person, institutions or other body in any matter concerned with a child’.
In its statement of the ‘rights of the juvenile’, the JJA guarantees juveniles in
confl ict with the law who are being processed within the juvenile justice system
the right to privacy.
5 Consequently, no information relating to the identity of
276 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
6 ) Article 4(3) of the JJA.
7 ) Article 11 of the JJA.
8 ) Article 13 of the JJA.
9 ) Article 10 of the JJA.
10) Ibid.
11) Article 60 of the JJA defi nes ‘a place of safety’ as ‘the home of a relative or a probation offi cer or
some other who in the opinion of a probation offi cer or a police offi cer is a fi t person to take care
of a juvenile until the juvenile can be brought before court or a home approved by the Minister
responsible for Social Welfare or a remand home or in the absence of these a police station’.
12) Article 13 of the JJA.
13) Ibid.
14) Article 15(6) of the JJA.
such a juvenile can be made public. e JJA further requires that arrest be
made ‘with due regard to the dignity and well-being of the juvenile’; hence,
the person eff ecting the arrest is required to use only minimal force.
6 e
juvenile must be informed of the reason for his/her arrest and at least one parent/
guardian or close relative must be informed as soon as possible; in their absence,
a probation offi cer, who must look for the juvenile’s parents or guardians must
be informed. e juvenile must be informed of the right of access to legal counsel
at this stage,
7 and cannot be questioned or interviewed in relation to the pur-
ported off ence in the absence of his/her parents, guardians or a probation
offi cer.
8
Whereas the arrested juvenile may be searched, the search must be done with
decency by a police offi cer of the same sex; in the absence of which the offi cer
could authorize an adult of the same sex to do the search. However, only a medi-
cal offi cer may conduct a search of a juvenile’s private parts if need be.
9 A juvenile
released on recognizance or admitted to bail on his/her promises can only be
searched on reasonable grounds and a juvenile can only be given a formal caution
by police in private in the presence of his/her parents.
10 Such a juvenile’s record of
caution must be removed from the records after 5 years. A juvenile not released
on self-recognizance must be placed in a remand home or a place of safety so
designated by the Department of Social Welfare or District Assembly.
11 A juvenile
not released on recognizance or within 48 hours of arrest must be placed in deten-
tion. Not only must such a juvenile be separated from adults but male juveniles
should likewise be separated from females and supervision must be done by an
adult of the same sex.
12 Relatives, lawyers, and public offi cers are guaranteed
access to a juvenile in detention.
13 Other rights the JJA accords a detained
juvenile are adequate food, medical treatment, reasonable visits from parents,
guardians, lawyers; and, any other conditions reasonably required for the welfare
of the juvenile.
14
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 277
15) Article 22 of the JJA.
16) A birth certifi cate, baptismal certifi cate, or a certifi cate signed by a medical offi cer constitute
enough proof of age (Article 19, of the JJA).
17) Article 21(5) of the JJA.
18) Article 21(6) of the JJA.
19) Crimes punishable by death in Ghana include murder (Criminal Code (Act 29) s. 46) and
treason (Criminal Code (Act 29) s. 180).
20) Article 23 of the JJA.
21) Articles 23(6) and 15(6) of the JJA.
Rights During Trial
e juvenile has a right to receive assistance when he appears before the juvenile
court and the court is obliged to inform him at the beginning of proceedings of
the following rights in a language that the juvenile understands:
(i) ‘the right to remain silent;
(ii) the right to have a parent, guardian, close relative or probation offi cer
present at the proceedings;
(iii) the right to legal representation; and
(iv) the right to legal aid’. 15
According to the JJA (Article 20), the charge sheet must be in a language the
juvenile understands. is is very important in a country like Ghana that boasts
of up to about 100 diff erent languages; and where 21.1% of all males and 41%
of females have never been to school where English, the offi cial language of the
country, is the main language of instruction (Ghana Statistical Services, 2000;
Republic of Ghana, 2005:67-68). e court is required to determine the age of
any juveniles who appear before it to ascertain that they are not older than 18
years. 16 is is an important obligation placed on the court considering the fi nd-
ings about under-age children being processed through the adult justice system,
as will be discussed below. e court may deny bail to a juvenile only if doing so
would expose the juvenile or community to serious danger, or the juvenile might
not appear for trial, might interfere with investigations, or is likely to commit
another off ence.
17 A juvenile denied bail in the juvenile court has a right to apply
for bail at the High Court.
18 A juvenile court may release a juvenile denied bail
either to his parents, guardians or a remand home that is within a reasonable
distance of the court. e remand period cannot exceed three months except for
crimes punishable by death
19 in adult court in which case it could be six months.
20
A juvenile on remand has the same rights as a juvenile in detention prior to being
arraigned before court in terms of being provided adequate food, medical treat-
ment, reasonable visits from parents, guardians, and lawyers.
21
278 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
22) Child panels are also responsible for addressing issues related to children in need of care and
protection. Whereas under all past juvenile justice legislation, children in need of care and protec-
tion were put before the juvenile courts for their situation to be addressed, this function has now
been given to the child panels under the new JJA. is is an important step in upholding the welfare
principle that is cardinal to both the JJA and the Children’s Act, 1998 with respect to children in
need of care and protection. Children in need of care and protection are not criminals and should
not be treated as such. Diff erent treatment of children in need of care and protection from juveniles
in confl ict with the law upholds the separate status of the former.
23) For a good discussion of restorative justice and its programs and practices see, for example,
Zehr, H., Changing Lenses : A New Focus for Crime and Justice (Waterloo: Ont.: Herald Press, 1990);
Van Ness, D., and Strong, K., Restoring Justice (Cincinnati: Anderson, 2002); Sharpe, S., Restorative
Justice: A Vision For Healing and Change (Edmonton: Edmonton Victim Off ender Mediation
Society, 1998); and, Morris, R., Stories of Transformative Justice (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press,
2002).
24) See articles 24-26 of the JJA and the Children’s Act 1998, articles 27-32.
25) Article 26 of the JJA.
26) Article 33 of the JJA.
e juvenile court is also obligated to order a social enquiry report on a juve-
nile who appears before it. e report must be considered when the court makes
any order concerning the juvenile. When the case before the court is a minor
off ence, the report could make a recommendation that the case be diverted from
the formal criminal justice system. If the court agrees with this recommendation,
the case would be referred to a child panel, a quasi-judicial body that is mandated
to implement the new juvenile justice system’s alternative policy of ‘diversion’.
22
It is a policy that embraces and uses the principles, practices and programs of
restorative justice such as victim-off ender mediation (VOM), victim-off ender
reconciliation mediation (VORM), and conferences.
23 Restorative justice as put
forth in the JJA is an alternative way of dealing with children in confl ict with the
law with the purpose of preventing juveniles from being stigmatized as a result of
contact with the criminal justice system, holding children individually account-
able for their act, and off ering the community and victims the opportunity to
make an input in the determination of cases. e ultimate aim is to promote
restitution, reconciliation, and the reintegration of these children into the family
and community.
24
e JJA assures all accused juveniles of equal access to diversion programs and
prohibits any inhuman and degrading treatment as part of any of its practices and
programs. 25
us, the JJA concurs with the CRC’s standard of providing alternative meas-
ures for children in confl ict with the law, reintegrating them into the community,
and the use of incarceration as a last resort.
Cases not diverted are to be given expeditious hearing. A juvenile could be
discharged if his or her case is not completed within six months of his fi rst appear-
ance before the court.
26 As pointed out earlier, the hearings of the juvenile court
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 279
27) Article 16 of the JJA.
28) ey include conditional or unconditional discharge; discharge upon making an undertaking;
probation; committal to the care of a relative or other fi t person; payment of fi nes, damages, or costs
by juvenile or parents (Articles 29-31 and 34-35 of the JJA); and detention (articles 39-52).
29) Articles 32 and 46(7) of the JJA.
30) Article 37 of the JJA.
31) Article 37(3)) of the JJA. Article 46(8) of the Act defi nes serious off ences as ‘murder, rape, defi le-
ment, indecent assault involving unlawful harm, robbery with aggravated circumstance, drug
off ences, and off ences related to fi rearms’. e Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 1998, defi nes
defi lement as rape of a child under 16 years of age with or without her consent and rape as carnal
knowledge of a child 16 years or above without her consent.
32) Articles 39-41 of the JJA.
33) Articles 43(2) and 38(4) of the JJA.
are separate from adults, private, informal, and only offi cers of the court and
parties to the case can be present. Policemen who appear in court must wear civil-
ian clothes.
27
Rights related to Sentencing
e JJA off ers the juvenile court both custodial and non-custodial sentences
28 as
options for disposing of cases. Incarceration in an adult prison and the death
penalty are explicitly prohibited under the JJA,
29 conforming with another stand-
ard set by the CRC. A juvenile has a right to apply for his records of conviction
and sentence to be removed from the books after fi ve years if he has completed a
non-custodial sentence and has not committed any new off ence during that
period. Similarly, a juvenile could apply for his records to be expunged within a
period of ten years if he has completed a custodial sentence and has not been
convicted of a new off ence within the period.
30 However, the records of a juvenile
who commits a serious off ence cannot be erased.
31
Rights while Incarcerated
e JJA authorizes the creation of Junior and Senior Correctional Centers where
juveniles and young adults may be sentenced respectively to serve a period of
incarceration. 32 A juvenile, however, has a right to appeal his detention as with
any other sentence imposed by the juvenile court.
33 e detention order must
specify the age and religious persuasion of the juvenile (s. 44(2)). e latter
requirement was put there most probably to ensure that juveniles deprived of
their liberty who so desire can exercise their religious rights such as participation
in religious activities. e Act also requires the Ministers of Interior and Social
Welfare who have responsibility for the Junior and Senior Correctional Centers
respectively to put in place facilities for periodic visits and inspection by
authorized committees and persons of which Ghana’s human rights commission,
280 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
34) Article 42 of the JJA.
35) e Children’s Act 1998 (s. 2); the Juvenile Justice Act 2003 (s. 2).
the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), was
specifi cally mentioned.
34
IV. Discussion
From the above, it is clear that Ghana’s Juvenile Justice Act 2003 on the books
largely conforms to the standards set in the CRC as listed in section II of this
paper. is should not come as a surprise. In the memorandum that served as
foreword to the Juvenile Justice Bill, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the then
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who presented the bill in parliament,
stated that the
main objective of [the] Bill was to provide a juvenile justice system to protect the rights of
children and provide for young off enders in accordance with international standards in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the
Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules). (Republic of Ghana, 2003:1).
e discussions in the previous section show beyond doubt that the law makers
were successful in achieving this goal; sometimes even exceeding the standards of
the CRC. For example, in the statement of the welfare principle of the best inter-
est of the child, as shown earlier, whereas Article 3 of the CRC requires that ‘the
best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration’ in all matters concern-
ing the child, both Ghana’s JJA and the Children’s Act 1998 state that the ‘best
interest of the child [a juvenile] shall be the primary consideration … in any mat-
ter concerned with the child [a juvenile]’.
35
Further evidence of the desire not only to conform to the UN standards of
children’s rights but to actually protect children’s rights in the country was the
creation of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Aff airs (MOWAC) with cabi-
net status in 2001. What became the Children’s Department of the new ministry
was the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC), which was itself
created in 1979 as a permanent commission from an ad-hoc committee set up to
oversee Ghana’s observation of the United Nations International Year of the Child
1979. e Commission was mandated to protect the general welfare and devel-
opment of children, coordinate the work of agencies that provide services and
programs for children, and make recommendations to the government on child
legislation (Ghana National Commission on Children, 1989: 7-8). Now as the
Children’s Department of the new ministry, it has continued to perform the func-
tions of the GNCC and has played an essential role in coordinating the work of
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 281
the Multi-Sectoral Committee and regional Inter-Agency Committees on
Children’s Rights (Gagnon, 2005: 37).
In addition to the establishment of MOWAC, is the transformation of the
Juvenile Justice Unit of the Police Service, fi rst into the Women and Juveniles’
Unit (WAJU) in 1998 and recently into the Domestic Violence and Victims’
Unit (DOVVSU) to refl ect its expanded focus on the domestic violence and child
abuse after the passage of the Domestic Violence Act 2007 (Act 732). Among its
many functions, DOVVSU deals with the violation of the rights of women and
children in the domestic setting, cooperating with several agencies and NGOs
such as the Department of Social Welfare and the Legal Aid Board to secure the
welfare and legal aid for victims, in addition to its original mandate of investigat-
ing and prosecuting juvenile off enders (Republic of Ghana, 2008:9 & 11).
However, as policy students are well aware, there is often a gap between the law
on the books and the law in practice. e same applies to the JJA and related
child rights legislations in Ghana and their implementation. e realities on the
ground show that the JJA and Children’s Act, in practice, do not play out so
smoothly as stated in the laws in protecting the rights of children including juve-
niles in confl ict with the law. On that score, the United Nations Committee on
the Rights of the Child in their Concluding Observations on Ghana’s Second
State Party Report, stated in 2006 ‘[n]otwithstanding the positive steps taken by
the State party in the context of the comprehensive legislative reform, the
Committee remains concerned about the insuffi cient implementation creating a
gap between law and practice’ (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the
Child, 2006:3, paragraph 9).
Multiple factors account for the colossal gap between the law and practice in
Ghana. e rest of this section will be devoted to a discussion of these factors.
Lack of Resources
First, there is lack of eff ective coordination among the several Ministries,
Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) responsible for the protection of children’s
rights and the administration of juvenile justice in the country: the Police Service,
specifi cally DOVSSU, charged with investigating and prosecuting juvenile
crimes; the Probation Offi ce and the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) under
the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, responsible for all juvenile
remand homes, probation offi cers, and junior correctional centers; the Judicial
Service under the Ministry of Justice that has direct responsibility for the juvenile
courts; the Prison Service under the Ministry of Interior, that runs the senior cor-
rectional centers for older juveniles and young adults; and the Department of
Children of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Aff airs (MOWAC), that has
the general mandate of protecting and promoting the interests of all children in
the country, and, therefore by default, charged with the duty of coordinating the
282 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
36) Children’s Act 1998, articles 16, 27-32; and the Juvenile Justice Act, articles 24-27.
37) Several scholars have observed this problem. For example, see Robert Seidman (1969: 430-472);
Robert Ameh (1993); Department of Social Welfare and UNICEF (2005); Lisa Gagnon (2005);
and, Siobhan Laird 2008: 377-398). Similar problems have been observed for all of Africa: see for
example, United Nations Offi ce on Drug and Crime (2005); and, S. Harrendorf, M. Heiskanen, S.
Malby (2010).
work of all MDAs involved in the protection and advocacy for children, includ-
ing children’s rights. Cooperation between the MDAs and the Districts has not
been easy coming and there has been lack of leadership. Lisa Gagnon (2005: 49)
observes that while the Children’s Department of MOWAC plays a leadership
role in coordinating the activities of the National Multi-Sectoral Committee on
Children’s Rights, some of the MOWAC coordinated Inter-Agency Committees
have progressed well while some have dissipated and that MDAs need to send key
decision-makers or representatives with delegated authority to the table to ensure
that the decisions of the Committee are enforceable and to ensure that the proc-
ess is not delayed by each agency having to process the decisions of the Committee
separately through its own bureaucratic system.
At the local level, the 1998 Children’s Act tasks Metropolitan and District
Assemblies, under the Ministry of Local Government, to liaise the activities of
governmental agencies on matters concerning children, defend children’s rights
in general, protect children in need of care and protection, and implement the
diversion programs (alternative measures) under the JJA. e district offi ces of
the Social Welfare Department are to investigate cases of violation of children’s
rights. 36 Similar to the situation at the national level, coordination of the work of
these agencies at the local level has not been eff ective prompting the Committee
on the Rights of the Child to state in its concluding observations that
[t]he Committee notes with appreciation the institutional reform whereby the Ministry of
Women and Children’s Aff airs (MOWAC) has been established to coordinate, monitor and
review the formulation of gender and child responsive policies and their implementation
within sectors. However, the Committee remains concerned about the lack of an eff ective
inter-ministerial coordination of all activities related to the implementation of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and the limited resources allocated for MOWAC. e Committee
is also concerned about the limited capacities of the District Assemblies which hamper the
implementation of Convention on the Rights of the Child at the local level (United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2006:3, paragraph 13).
Also, there is an acute lack of resources for the MDAs and local assemblies charged
with protecting and advocating children’s rights to carry out their work. Several
scholars and observers of the system of juvenile justice administration in the
country have commented on this problem.
37 e government of Ghana has itself
acknowledged this problem in its national reports to the Committee on the
Rights of the Child (Republic of Ghana, 2005: 17, paragraph 25), and the
Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review. e latter report states,
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 283
Even though the economy has been growing steadily through prudent management, the chal-
lenge of inadequate resources is real. is is largely as a result of the rise in the price of crude
oil which has led to pressure on our economy and budget. As a result, the allocation of
resources to all sectors has been aff ected. Key institutions for the promotion and protection of
fundamental human rights and freedoms have also been aff ected (Republic of Ghana, 2008:20,
paragraph 75).
e Committee on the Rights of the Child in its Concluding Observations on
Ghana’s Second Report seem to agree with the government of Ghana on the
problem of fi nancial and economic constraints on Ghana in making resources
available for protecting the rights of children, just as it did in its Concluding
Report on Ghana’s First Report (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the
Child, 1997), when it wrote,
e Committee takes note that diffi cult socio-economic conditions, high-level external debt
and poverty place limitations upon the State party’s fi nancial and human resources and ham-
per the achievement of eff ective enjoyment of the rights of the child. (United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2006:2, paragraph 6).
us, whereas child rights legislation in general looks good on paper, the resources
that must act as the gas and oil that fi res and lubricates the system to function
eff ectively are seriously lacking.
e Media and the Rights of Children in Confl ict with the Law
e Ghanaian media persistently violates the privacy rights of children in confl ict
with the law. As stated under the sub-section titled, ‘Rights when arrested’ in sec-
tion III above, one of the rights the JJA guarantees children in confl ict with the
law is privacy. According to Article 3 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2003:
(1) A juvenile has the right to privacy during arrest, the investigation of an
off ence, at the trial of the off ence and at any other stage of the cause or
matter.
(2) A person shall not in the course of arrest, investigation or trial of an
off ence connected with a juvenile, or at any other stage of the cause or
matter, release any information for publication that may lead to the iden-
tifi cation of the juvenile.
(3) Any person who contravenes subsection (2) commits an off ence and is
liable on summary of conviction to a fi ne not exceeding 250 penalty units
or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 12 months or to both.
Also, article 39 (1) of the Children’s Act prohibits the publication of the name of
a child in a matter before a Family Tribunal: ‘No person shall publish any infor-
mation that may lead to the identifi cation of a child in any matter before a Family
Tribunal except with the permission of the Family Tribunal’.
284 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
38) e West African Examination Council conducts all high school fi nal examinations and issues
all high school certifi cates in all the West African countries that have English as their formal lan-
guage namely: Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Gambia.
39) See e West African Examination Council Act, 2006 (Act 719) of the Parliament of Ghana.
40) e state-owned Daily Graphic is the largest circulating newspaper in Ghana.
41) It is, however, on record that MOWAC reprimanded journalists and the media for their
unethical reporting of child abuse stories in August 2008. See Ghana News Agency, ‘MOWAC
condemns ethical disregard on child abuse reporting’, posted on Ghana Home Page, < http://www
.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=147774 >, on Friday, August 1,
Hence, no information related to the identity of children in confl ict with the
law may be made public. In practice, however, the Ghanaian media consistently
violate this right pertaining to both child victims and off enders. In their reportage
of child abuse stories and other crimes involving children either as victims or
off enders including when such cases are under investigations within the juvenile
justice system, it is not uncommon for Ghanaian journalists to freely give out
pertinent information, which easily gives away the identity of these children. Not
only does the media often state the names of child victims and off enders, but also
the names of their parents and where they reside, which could easily lead to the
identifi cation of the children involved. e worst example in recent times was
when the West African Examination Council (WAEC),
38 which is bound by
Ghanaian criminal law,
39 published not only the names but also pictures of high
school students who were involved in examination malpractices in the Daily
Graphic 40 in the fi rst two weeks of September 2009. WAEC defended its actions
on the grounds that previous sanctions such as cancellation of examination papers
of the candidates, banning them from writing the examinations for a year, and
publication of their names without their pictures were not being eff ective vis a vis
new sophisticated cheating methods adopted by candidates, such as the use of cell
phones, hence, the adoption of the stringent measure of also publishing the pic-
tures of off enders to act as a more eff ective deterrent.
It is, however, clear from the relevant section of the JJA cited above that neither
the publication of the names nor of pictures is legal; both violate the right to
privacy of the children involved, against whom legal proceedings were being
instituted in the courts of law. In eff ect, the WAEC and the Daily Graphic in the
example above, and numerous other journalists and media outlets in Ghana are
violating the rights of children when they publish identifying information about
juveniles in their child abuse stories and crime reports that have become a daily
staple of the Ghanaian media. Interestingly in the WAEC case, while one child
rights NGO and a group of concerned citizens came to the defense of the juve-
niles involved citing their privacy rights, one NGO supported the actions of
WAEC citing the deterrent eff ect of those actions (Daily Graphic, 2009; Ghana
News Agency, 2009a), while MOWAC and the Department of Children, man-
dated to protect the rights of children in Ghana, remained silent.
41
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 285
2008. (Accessed August 1, 2008). e Ghana Media Advocacy Programme (G-MAP), a child-
friendly NGO has also accused the media of violating the rights children by using ‘negative photo-
graphs’ and ‘sensational expressions’ in reports on children. See Ghana News Agency, ‘G-MAP
Appeals to Media to Protect Rights of Children’, posted online at Ghana Home Page, < http://www
.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=161958 >, on Tuesday, May 12,
2009d. (Accessed May 12, 2009).
42) e Legal Aid Scheme Law, 1987, (PNDC Law 184), was, however, re-enacted in 1997 as e
Legal Aid Scheme Act, 1997 (Act 542), which now governs free legal aid in Ghana.
43) e President of the Ghana Bar Council denied the allegation and counter-accused the Legal
Aid Board of not being proactive in the same new report.
44) e fi ndings of the study, ‘Women’s Access to Justice and the Court System in Ghana – a case
study of Northern Ghana,’ conducted by Dr. Callistus Mahama, Deputy Director of the Institute
of Local Government Studies, were reported in an online news item.
Free Legal Aid?
Free legal aid was introduced in 1987
42 but many parents do not know about its
existence, and, hence, do not take advantage of it. e Convention requires chil-
dren appearing before the courts to have legal assistance in their defense (Article
40 (b) (ii)), yet in the Ghanaian system, even though a free legal aid system is
supposed to be in operation only a few parents are aware of this or take advantage
of it, and the majority of the children who appear before the juvenile courts are
not represented by lawyers. In 2009, Mr. Alhassan Yahaya Seini, Director of the
Legal Aid Board attributed the non-performance of the Board to unavailability of
lawyers. He accused the Ghana Bar Association of stifl ing its eff orts to provide
free legal aid to the needy by not providing it with a list of lawyers assigned to the
Board in the Greater-Accra, Northern and Upper regions of the country despite
making several requests (Gadugah, 2009).
43 In a separate interview with the
Ghana News Agency, Mr. Seini bemoaned the non-provision of legal aid to the
needy arguing that it was a violation of their constitutional rights (Ghana News
Agency, 2009b). e fi ndings of a study conducted by the Institute of Local
Government Studies confi rmed that women in Northern Ghana have limited
access to justice as courts, Legal Aid, and DOVVSU were non-existent in many
districts making it diffi cult for women in those areas to report cases of human
rights violations (Ghana News Agency, 2009e).
44
But the problems of the Ghana Legal Aid Board are not limited to the north-
ern regions of the country. Mr Godwin Kpoble, Volta Regional Director of the
Legal Aid Board (LAB) stated in an interview that lack of money to commute
between towns and villages and the regional capitals where the offi ces of the Legal
Aid Board are located prevented people from using the services of the Board
(Ghana News Agency, 2009f). In the Volta Region, he said the Board attracted
clients mainly from the towns and villages surrounding Ho, the regional capital,
while only a few clients from towns and villages further away from Ho made use
of their services; even those few soon stopped pursuing their cases due to lack of
286 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
45) Lisa Gagnon (2005: 35-36) has pointed out several other problems that hinder the smooth run-
ning of free legal aid scheme in the country. e Ghana Legal Aid Board, which administers the
government’s free legal aid program, depends on private lawyers to represent clients. According to
Gagnon, the wages paid these lawyers is not attractive at all to be point of only being symbolic,
which leads to very little interest among lawyers to be involved in the scheme. Hence, shortage of
lawyers working in the scheme to the extent that it’s become a struggle to get a free legal aid lawyer.
e few involved ask their clients to pay for some services all the same even though it is supposed
to be free. Many cannot aff ord even those small fees. e few available lawyers are overwhelmed
with cases; and there are cases that no lawyer wants as they tend to focus mainly on criminal cases.
As Gagnon points out, this results in many children and women not being represented by lawyers
when they appear in court; or if they do, there are long court delays in hearing one’s case leading to
lack of motivation in seeking redress before the formal justice system. So, while the JJA states that
all children who appear before the juvenile courts are entitled to legal representation, it does not
happen in practice.
46) Ibid. p. 28. ere is no new information on this since Gagnon’s study in 2005. However, since
the alternative measures introduced by the JJA is not yet functional in many jurisdictions, it stands
to reason that custodial sentences remain the most favoured method of sentencing even under the
JJA introduced in 2003.
funds to commute to Ho. Mr. Kpoble also stated that lack of awareness of the
existence of the Board and its services accounted for low patronage; mentioning
that people were more aware of the services of the Commission on Human Rights
and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Domestic Violence and Victims
Support Unit (DOVVSU) than those of the Board. is suggests that the Board
also needs to be more proactive as pointed out by the President of the Ghana Bar
Association in response to Mr. Seini’s accusation. LAB must better make its pres-
ence known as CHRAJ and DOVVSU have done and become a more eff ective
national institution.
45 us, while the JJA requires all children in confl ict with
the law to have legal representation and free legal aid if they cannot aff ord the
services of a lawyer, in practice, many of these children in Ghana do not.
Juvenile Courts Favour Custodial Sentences
While the JJA seems to favor non-custodial sentences for example by introducing
alternative measures that are supposed to divert children from the formal juvenile
justice system, incarceration is still one of the favorite methods of disposal of
cases by the juvenile court. us, Lisa Gagnon (2005) reports that, ‘institutional
placement and probation are the commonest sentences pronounced against juve-
niles.’ 46 is violates Article 37 (b) of the CRC that requires detention or impris-
onment to be a last resort for children in trouble with the law.
It is, then, not surprising that large numbers of children are still held in police
cells and adult prisons. According to the CRC, juvenile off enders should not be
put in the same facilities as adults but a report on the state of juvenile justice
administration in Ghana in 2005 shows that 10,488 juveniles were held in police
cells between 1993 and 2003 and that 2,164 juveniles were held in adult prison
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 287
47) ese statistics have been used in the absence of more recent data. e closest most recent avail-
able data describes youths: the Annual Prisons Report for 2007 shows that 76.2% of the prison
population were in the age group 18 to 35 years, and of that percentage, 46% were 18–25 years old
(Ghana News Agency, 2009c). It is important to note that under the JJA, adult children (18–23
year olds) who committed their crimes as juveniles are considered as youths who must serve their
sentences at Senior Correctional Centers and not at adult prisons. Based on previous fi ndings of
children serving time in adult prisons (Ameh 1993), it is not far-fetched to project that ‘youths’, as
defi ned by the JJA (18-23 year olds), are highly represented in these statistics.
cells within the same period (Department of Social Welfare and UNICEF, 2005:
37-39). 47 ese fi ndings are not in consonance with the spirit and letter of the
CRC. Article 37 (c) of the Convention requires that children deprived of their
freedom shall be separated from adults. e practice also violates Ghana’s own
JJA requirement of a separate justice system for juveniles.
Ghanaian Culture
Negative social attitudes hamper granting rights to children in general and chil-
dren in confl ict with the law in particular. Public and offi cial government attitude
towards inmates and particularly juvenile delinquents is highly negative. In a
country where absolute respect for elders, who are seen as the repository of knowl-
edge and wisdom, is one of the most cherished values, any form of deviance on
the part of children is interpreted as disrespect and rebellion against both the
elders and society in general. Children are, thus, expected to give the utmost
respect to the elderly. Deviant children, for that matter juvenile delinquents, are
labeled as “bad” children. In fact, institutions for juvenile delinquents in the
country are commonly referred to as ‘ Abofra bone sukuul ’, an expression in the
local twi language which literally means ‘bad children’s school’.
However, in the Ghanaian social system, people considered bad are also people
seen as not deserving of any good treatment themselves. In eff ect, ‘bad’ people do
not deserve any rights. Hence, the notion of rights for criminals, let alone juve-
nile delinquents, does not go down well with the people. is is refl ected in the
lack of prestige, public support, and allocation of adequate resources to the agen-
cies that have direct responsibility for children in confl ict with the law, especially
the Department of Social Welfare and Probation Services.
In a country generally considered poor, people think it is unfair to allocate
resources to cater for the welfare of inmates, when other law abiding citizens can-
not make ends meet on the outside. Hence, while street children, abandoned
children, poor children and victims of genital mutilation elicit a lot of sympathy
and support from the public, the same cannot be said of children in confl ict with
the law. is seem to be the attitude of the successive governments of the country
as well if one refl ects on the acute lack of material and human resources within
the juvenile justice system, beside other factors.
288 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
48) Winston Churchill to the British House of Commons, July 1910, ‘ e mood and temper of the
public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civi-
lization of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the
State, and even of convicted criminals against the State, a constant heart-searching by all charged
with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry all those
who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless eff orts towards the discovery
of curative and regenerating processes, and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if you can
only fi nd it, in the heart of every man – these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and
criminals mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the
living virtue in it.’ Cited in David Cayley (1998) e Expanding Prison: e Crisis in Crime and
Punishment and the Search for Alternatives (Toronto: e House of Anansi Press, 1998, p. v).
is thinking does not run in line with the underlying assumption of the CRC
that sees rights as entitlements that people have simply for being human and to
which even people in confl ict with the law are entitled. However, in a country
considered poor, it raises an ethical question about providing the needs and pro-
tecting the rights of convicted delinquents and criminals when the needs of law
abiding citizens and children in need of care and protection cannot be adequately
met. Considering the army of street children in Ghanaian cities (Apt et al. , 1992;
Ghana Labor Survey, 2003) and other children in need of care and protection
(Mensah-Bonsu and Dowouna Hammond, 1994; Apt et al , 1998) is it ethical to
allocate adequate resources to the needs of children in confl ict with the law while
children in need of care and protection are not adequately catered for? is ques-
tion cannot be adequately addressed in this paper. Suffi ce it to say for now that as
Winston Churchill (1910) once pointed out, one of the cardinal tests of the civi-
lization of any country is how it treats its criminals.
48
As shown by the discussion in this section, a huge gap exists between the JJA
and related policies of the juvenile justice system, on the one hand, and actual
practices within the system and the CRC standards, on the other hand. It is
important to state that this gap exists at all locations: at the policy making level
involving MDAs; at the juvenile courts where accused children are not repre-
sented by legal counsel and many parents are not even aware of the existence of
free legal aid, and where custodial sentences are still the favorite means of disposal
of cases; and at ‘bad boys schools’ where the Department of Social Welfare, lack-
ing any prestige and public support, is acutely starved of resources for fulfi lling its
mandate.
V. Transforming the System
From the discussions in the previous section, it could be argued that the imple-
mentation of the Ghanaian child protection system in general, and how it treats
its children in confl ict with the law in particular, is in need of major transforma-
tion. So how can the system be changed?
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 289
49) Citing these sources that are 17 and 27 years old to support current practices only goes to show
the dearth of literature on children’s rights and the juvenile justice system in Ghana.
50) e Ministry of Social Welfare is the least infl uential in the system.
e Ghana juvenile justice system operates in an authoritarian bureaucratic
managerial system (Ameh, 1993; Opolot, 1983).
49 Essentially, it is a top-down
system with instructions emanating from the top and hardly any input from
below. Eff ective power is located at the policy-making level at the Ministries and
Departments, especially the Ministries of Justice and Attorney-General, Interior,
and since 2001, MOWAC.
50 Hence, change can only come from the top.
However, like most countries in the developing world, the system is easily
amenable to ideas emanating from abroad, especially the western world. In fact,
Ghana is very receptive to ideas originating from the western world. e very
survival of the educated elite as the post-colonial political leaders in developing
countries such as Ghana depend on the approval they receive from foreign lead-
ers. While successive Ghanaian governments are conscious of being seen as doing
what foreign leaders will have them do, they really do not care about their own
people’s needs and desires. e prestige and success of Ghanaian leaders is often
measured by the number of invitations for state visits they receive from foreign
governments and the number of foreign dignitaries that visit the country during
their term in offi ce, not what they do for their people. is is not surprising con-
sidering the fact that 53 years after independence the economy of Ghana, like
that of most other countries is controlled by foreign countries, businesses, and
institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the United Nations.
If the system is authoritarian and those who control power respect only the
views of foreigners, then, a key strategy for making successful change is third
party intervention. e “third party” in this case would be foreign governments,
development partners, international NGOs, the IMF, World Bank, and the UN
especially the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. ey should
all put pressure on the government of Ghana to live up to its obligations. For
example, Article 43 (1) of the UNCRC grants the Committee on the Rights of
the Child power to examine the progress made by States Parties in achieving the
realization of the obligations undertaken in the Convention. e Committee has
been described as an international “Supreme Court” with regard to issues pertain-
ing to children’s rights (Cohen, 1993). All these institutions would be more suc-
cessful than any Ghanaian institutions or stakeholders when they put pressure on
the government of Ghana to live up to its obligations and to implement its own
children’s rights policies that have been so nicely written on paper.
A last resort would be to use Ghana’s development partners and international
fi nancial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank to infl uence the government with respect to children’s rights issues.
290 R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293
51) For a discussion of the negative impact of IMF and World Bank policies in Africa, see Siobhan
Laird ‘African Social Services in Peril: a Study of the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana under
the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative’ Journal of Social Work , 2008 (8(4)), 377-398;
Siobhan Laird (2002) ‘ e 1998 Children’s Act: Problems of Enforcement in Ghana’ British Journal
of Social Work , 2002 (32), 893-905; Siobhan Laird (2005) ‘International Child Welfare:
Deconstructing UNICEF’s Country Programmes’ Social Policy and Society , 2005 (4(4)), 457-466;
Peter Gibbon, Yusuf Bangura, & Arve Ofstad Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Adjustment: the
Politics of Economic Reform in Africa , (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1992); and, Tore Linne Eriksen
(1990) Afrikas Krise: Finnes det Alternative til Verdensbankens Diagnose og Medisin? (Norsk
Utenriskspolitisk Institutt, Olso, Norway, 1990) (this is a summary of a wide range of central docu-
ments on Africa’s economic crisis, the World Bank, and Structural Adjustment).
e IMF and the World Bank are not popular with Ghanaians because the two
world institutions are seen as the architects of harsh economic policies that have
been forced upon the people by successive Ghanaian governments, which have
often meant the removal of subsidies on public services and privatization of
government services such as happened in the case of the Structural Adjustment
Program (SAP) imposed on the country in the 1980s and 1990s and the Highly
Indebted Poor Country policy and Poverty Reduction Strategies in the past dec-
ade. 51 Yet, the fact still remains that since the Bretton Woods institutions fund
most of the projects in the country, the government always respect their advice.
Hence, these institutions still remain viable pressure points to get the government
of Ghana to do things it would otherwise not do.
Strategy to dispense knowledge/information of the CRC at the lower levels
e above suggestions apply mainly to the top level of the juvenile justice admin-
istration in the country. However, information about the standards of the
UNCRC is also needed at the lower levels of the juvenile justice system, particu-
larly by the front line workers in the juvenile justice system. While many
Ghanaians are aware that the country was the fi rst to ratify the CRC, not many
know of its contents. Knowledge of the CRC principles and standards should
become standard requirement for employing staff that work within the child
rights protection system, including the juvenile justice system. Agencies within
the system can take advantage of the upcoming 25
th anniversary of the CRC in
2014 and Ghana’s submission of its combined third, fourth, and fi fth state report
on the CRC in 2011 (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child,
2006) to launch a sustained program of seminars, workshops, and other educa-
tional activities to disseminate the standards of the Convention to staff already
employed. A long term solution would be to incorporate the CRC into the cur-
riculum of the educational institutions from which these workers are recruited
such as the Department of Social Work and the Prison Administration Unit at
the University of Ghana, the School of Social Welfare, the Prison Offi cers Training
School and the Police Academy.
R.K. Ame / International Journal of Children’s Rights 19 (2011) 271–293 291
e public’s negative attitude towards ‘bad children’ and the ‘bad children’s
schools’ must also be addressed. MOWAC, the Information Services Department,
religious bodies, and local NGOs have an important role to play to transform the
public’s attitude towards these children and propagate the standards and princi-
ples of the CRC. A cardinal part of the message they should bear is that society
must not give up on children in confl ict with the law and that society should
believe that these children could be helped to turn their lives around. A system of
evaluation should be ingrained in this public education to help determine what
works or does not work and to help chart the course of future action.
Also, it is important to remember that Ghana is defi nitely a poor country.
erefore, for any policy to be successfully implemented, the impact of the eco-
nomic environment on it should be an important component of policy planning.
Hence, an evaluation of the realistic ability of both government and parents to
provide a standard of living in consonance with the UNCRC has to be taken into
consideration. is might have been on the minds of the framers of the CRC
when they endorsed claw-back clauses such as Articles 4, 6(2), 23(3–4), and
24(4) of the CRC that recognize the fact that states are diff erentially endowed
and admonished states to implement the Convention according to the maximum
extent of their abilities. In this vein, the CRC specifi cally recommends taking
‘particular account … of the needs of developing countries’ (Article 24(4) and
implementing the CRC in these countries ‘within the framework of international
cooperation’ (Articles 4 and 45), which suggests aid from better endowed nations.
Ghana has always been open to aid from rich nations and hopefully, rich nations
will also live up to their obligations under international law and provide much
needed resources for implementing children’s rights law in the country.
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