Abantu for development and the Women’s Manifesto Coalition (WMC) have expressed worry about the increasing rate of attacks on women who take up leadership positions in the country, cautioning those involved in such brazen act to desist from it.
“We are deeply saddened that women in leadership positions have faced multiple insults and acts of degradation over the years while performing their assigned and constitutionally mandated duties,” a statement jointly issued in Accra by the two organisations laments.
The statement continued, “Unfortunately, we have sat in our comfort zones of incredulity, that now these abhorrent, vile, incendiary and contemptible verbal attacks are passing the threshold into threats of death. The recent numerous personal attacks and abuse and now the threat of death to the electoral commissioner, Mrs. Jean Mensa are revolting, horrendous, awful and unacceptable.”
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The issuance of the statement by the two women right groups followed the unending personal attacks and threats to Mrs. Jean Mensa, the electoral commissioner by individuals and group of people.
It added, “We want to assure Mrs. Jean Mensa that we recognize the difficulties associated with serving in such a combative position as the electoral commissioner trying to satisfy strong diverse political viewpoints in the hope of delivering universally acceptable democratic and electoral outcomes. What we will continue to condemn are threats of harm and death because those too contribute to the highest level of denial of human rights. We will however continue to support efforts at building consensus, compliance with constitutional mandates and the promotion of human rights, women’s rights and democratic governance.”
The statement said in recent times, women in Ghana have managed to ascend to very high profile positions of leadership, some for the first time- the first woman chief justice, Georgina Theodora wood; the first woman electoral commissioner, Charlotte Osei; the first woman speaker of Parliament, Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo and others.
“These women and others under the barrage of vitriol and threats, approval and disapproval from various sections of our citizenry. Nevertheless, they contributed in no small way, in progressing the aspirations and motivations of so many other women and helped push the nation’s required mandate of promoting women in institutional arrangements for sustainable development,” the statement noted.
Abantu for development and the Women Manifesto Coalition, the statement maintained, have been consistent in their support and defence of women in national policy and decision spaces.
The organisations, it insists, would continue to advocate for the need for Ghana to hold itself accountable to its constitutional mandate of increasing women’s equal participation and representation in public policy making and decision making at all levels.
Abantu for Development is a non-governmental organisation which has the vision of a world where empowered women and men advocate collectively on gender inequalities through promoting transformational leadership and development for a just society. It hosts the women’s manifesto coalition (WMC) that spearheaded the development of the women’s manifesto for Ghana, a living political but non-partisan document that outlines key issues of concern to women and makes demands for addressing them.
Source: Publicagendagh.com
