Ms Ellen Alai, Volta Regional Director of the Department of Women of the Ministry of Women and Children, has called for a campaign to raise the level of awareness on offences under the Domestic Violence Law.
She said there was an urgent need for men to understand that the consent of an underage girl to have sex with a man would not absolve that man from prosecution for defilement.
Ms Alai was addressing a durbar of at Hedzranawo, near Denu to mark the International Women's Day, 2009, in the Volta Region.
The theme for the event, instituted by United Nations and marked worldwide on March 8, is "Women and Men-United to End Violence against Women".
She said the impression one got from court proceedings was that many men did not know the limits to which they could go when looking for sexual partners and often fell foul of the law.
Miss Alai said rape and defilement were infractions under the law which carried long sentences.
She explained that the law was made to be the arbiter in the domestic setting and not anti-men and therefore called on men to collaborate to make it work.
Miss Alai said apathy and wilful refusal to report obvious cases of domestic violence to the authorities also constituted punishable infractions.
She said women who maltreated their house helps were also liable under the law.
Miss Alai expressed disgust at the trend now among criminals to rape their women victims after robbing them of their property.
She commended Mr Ahmed Issah Yakubu, Aflao District Commander of Police, for swiftly moving to the help of a widow locked out of her home by relatives of her deceased husband recently.
Mr Yakubu who chaired the function expressed the hope that massive education on the rights of women might render the affirmative action on women redundant within the next five years.
He said the police would ensure that the rights of women were not taken for granted.
The day, held in collaboration with Ketu Council of Mamawo (Queens), was heralded by a procession through the town with placards some of which slammed wife beaters as weak men, described sleeping with immature girls as abomination and urged men to control their anger in dealing with their partners.
Bystanders the Ghana News Agency (GNA) spoke to expressed diverse reasons for violence against women in homes.
Christopher Amentor, a herbalist and John Korbla Tay, a driver, said verbal aggressiveness of women was the main cause of attacks on them by their partners.
Madam Afiworvi Nukpe, a trader, blamed immaturity, bad upbringing and male chauvinism for the aggression against women.
The consensus opinion, however, was that violence against women was unnecessary and must stop.
Mama Ayaba III, President of the Ketu Council of Mamawo, praised women in the area for their industry but expressed regret at their low turnout at the function.