The committee is advocating that the sex age to consent should match the legal age of marriage at 18 years.The age of consent to sex according to the Criminal Jurisprudence of Ghana is 16 years, allowing adolescents up to the age of 16 to engage in sexual intercourse.

However, the Children’s Act of Ghana defines a child as one who is below the age of 18 years and should not know or engage in sex.

Sadly, girls who became pregnant at age 16 as per the age of consent to sex are not allowed to get married per the legal age of marriage which is 18 years as captured in the Children’s Act of Ghana. The implication of the disparities of age of consent to sex and the legal age of marriage is teenage pregnancies.

It is on this basis that Members of the Regional Child Protection Committee called for review of the law on the age to consent to sex to match the legal age of marriage.The Upper East Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and member of the committee, Mr Abdulai Jaladeen disclosed this during the celebration of International Day of the Girl Child in Bolgatanga.

He indicated that the committee presented a petition to the Sector Minister last May and said “We are appealing to the Gender Ministry to lead the crusade such that a memo can be sent to parliament for this law to be amended.”

 However, according to him, the delay in reviewing the age to consent to sex allows culprits of child sexual abuses to go scot free.“When an adult impregnated a child at the age of 16, the law can catch up on you, but some of these people go behind to influence parents and even the victim. And once the girl appears before a judge, and says I consented, the judge and prosecutors cannot do anything”.

Mr Jaladeen added that if the law is changed from 16 to 18, men who fall foul to the law against girls below the age of 18 years would be punished fairly by the law no matter the culprit’s financial and social standing.He further called for review of the Children’s Act to give stiffer punishment to people who give their girls out for early marriages to serve as deterrent to others and indicated that the fine of Ghc500 for convicting an offender of the law was too minimal and suggested that a provision that spells out modalities to compel the culprit to ensure that her education is not curtailed.