Involve men in gender based violence campaign, Daily Graphic

THE Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has underscored the need to involve men in the campaign against sexual abuse and gender- based violence.
 “It is obvious that men are effective change agents because they hold more power and influence in a home or community” she stated.
According to her, involving men in the sexual and gender based violence campaign promoted social integration which made them to appreciate the issues surrounding gender violence of which women and girls were mostly the victims.
Over the years, strategies adopted to address gender-based violence focused mainly on working with women and girls.
Nana Oye Lithur made these remarks at the launch of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence which is marked from November 25 to December 10 each year.
The day, set aside by the United Nations, is intended to create awareness of gender based violence and remind society of the horrific acts of violence, especially against women and girls around the world.
The national theme for this year celebration is: “Ending sexual and gender based violence: the role of men and boys”, while the global theme for the past three years had been: “From peace in the home to peace in the world: let us challenge militarism and end violence against women”.
Worrying trend
A study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in June 2013 revealed that intimate partner violence was the most common type of violence affecting 30 per cent of women worldwide.
In addition, the WHO estimated that at least one in every three women globally would be beaten, raped or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Violence kills and disables as many women between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer does, and its toll on women's health surpasses that of traffic accidents and malaria combined.
In 2012, the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit recorded 10,432 sexual assault cases in three regions, namely the Greater Accra, Central and Ashanti regions.
A report released by the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) in November 2012 recorded 53 cases of spousal murders from January 2010 to July 2012 of which women were mostly the victims.
The minister expressed concern about the high rate of incidence of sexual and gender based violence in the country despite efforts by state and non state actors to reduce and eliminate all form of violence against women and children in Ghana. 
The role of the community
Nana Oye Lithur urged communities practicing child marriage and female genital mutilation to deter from the act and rather promote safer families into which women marry.
“Communities need to come up with practical steps to encourage members to be good husbands, fathers, brothers and sons” she stated.
Portraying women as sex object in the media, she noted, needed to be addressed since it could amount to the increase rate of sexual abuse in the country.
Government commitment
Nana Oye said the ministry would partner men and boys to speed up the process of promoting violence free society, adding that stakeholders and partners will draw up programmes and strategies that will engage them.
Some mechanism under consideration, she said, was the collaboration between her outfit and the Ministry of Education to review school curriculum to progressively re-socialise boys and girls on their roles in the society and disabuse their minds about the existing gender stereotypes.
She assured of the ministry’s commitment to promote the implementation of the  Domestic Violence Act and the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill.