Supporting human rights, gender equality and civil society in Ghana

Context

The promotion of gender equity and equality for women and girls is enshrined in Ghana's constitution. Nevertheless, most women and girls are in a subordinate position and the majority are affected by discrimination. This gender-based discrimination is often reinforced when people experience multiple discrimination based on other dimensions of identity such as disability, age and social status. This is also known as intersectionality.

Objective

Ghana is successfully implementing measures to achieve gender equality. It promotes human rights by taking an intersectional approach to tackling multiple discrimination.

Approach

The project runs training courses to build the institutional capabilities of Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and enable it to better protect victims of discrimination and human rights violations. At the same time, it sensitises employees to the various forms and dimensions of discrimination. The project also provides information about CHRAJ's existing complaints system and creates access for young people and women via social media and apps.

The project works with civil society organisations that provide counselling and protective services for victims of gender-based violence.

Last but not least, the project contributes to the work of the Marginalised Population Programme (MaPSafe) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which improves young people's access to information concerning their sexual and maternal health rights.

The actors involved take on various tasks:

• CHRAJ: Developing training materials and modules
• Civil society: Publishing media and art products and implementing campaigns on discrimination and multiple discrimination
• UNFPA: Expanding facilities offering protection and security, providing support for victims of sexual and gender-based violence and training new members of the rapid response team

Last update: December 2023