Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) must enact laws to protect children from neglect by their fathers, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) official has suggested.
Mr John Amoah, Gomoa District Director of the Commission told the Ghana News Agency on Thursday at Apam that child neglect topped cases the Commission handled.
He said out of the 71 cases the Gomoa West District CHRAJ handled in 2010, 50 were on child maintenance.
Mr Amoah said five were on paternity, two on property sharing, whilst payment of compensation were two, tenancy three, labour one, rape one and harassment two.
The others, one each case, were defilement, assault, divorce; abduction and breach of contract.
The CHRAJ District Director noted that the neglect of children were becoming too alarming and said since it created social problems for the society a more serious sanctions must be instituted for offenders.
Mr Amoah further suggested that the extended family system must be encouraged and strengthened so that people, who were capable for caring for neglected children, could do so to prevent children from becoming social misfits.
He said the District Directorate embarked on 18 outreach visits in 2010 to educate the people on the consequences of neglecting their parental responsibilities.
The CHRAJ District Director said they made them to know that criminal activities such as armed robbery were mainly due to the neglect of children.
Mr Amoah said fortunately the figure had reduced to nine out of 15 cases reported to the Directorate in the first quarter of 2011 as against 22 out of 27 cases received within the same period in 2010.
He attributed child neglect mainly to fathers from maternal inheritance system, who often said when they invested in their children they (children) go to their mothers’ side and the fathers ended up as losers.
Mr Amoah advised such fathers and said they should refrain from such behaviour because child neglect was a sin against God.