Assessing the domestic impact of international treaties in the prevention of violence against women in Ghana

Abstract

VAW in Ghana is blatant and pervasive. Ghana has, however, ratified the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women (the Maputo Protocol). These project the ideals of women’s enjoyment of rights and freedoms such as preventive violence against women (VAW). This study has explored the discursive construction of the lacuna between law and practice by “assessing the domestic impact of international treaties in the prevention of violence against women in Ghana.” Based on a qualitative methodical and theoretical approach conjoined with a gender intersectional lens, the paper’s findings reflect Ghana’s attempt to comply with its international and regional human rights legal obligations and international agendas to address VAW yet the treaties are seldom explicitly domesticated into legislations, institutional policies and programmes. This does not however mean that these treaties binding on Ghana, have not engineered any impact as there are many legislative, institutional policies and programmes whose objectives are attuned to the objectives of them. Some stalemates to a realistic domestic impact of preventive VAW are political tokenism/lip-serving governments; gender insensitive budgeting and policies and programming; limited sensitisation and attitudinal change towards women’s rights; poor/limited strategic ligations using treaties; traditional, religions and cultural conservative inhumane beliefs and practices etc. The paper’s recommendations include urgent legislative reforms/constitutional amendments; passage of the Affirmative Action Bill; gender sensitive budgeting and policy frameworks; continuous participatory approaches (grassroots mobilization, attitudinal change and broad-base stakeholder consultations. By far, the paper points to Ghana’s compliance to treaties owning to reputational protection; strategic global communication and socialisation by other states/ actors especially through recommendations, persuasion from treaty bodies; public criticisms/opinion; available of resources; and conformity of treaties being paradigmatic with existing national laws.