ACCRA -- Ghana will soon kick-start a campaign to educate and sensitise chiefs and other stakeholders on the need to reform or eliminate from the society negative traditional practices that erode human dignity, a minister of state said on Tuesday.

Dr Henry Seidu Daanaa, minister of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, told a regular ministerial press conference that the campaign would give meaning to the ratification of the UN Convention on Human Rights to which Ghana is a signatory.

"It will also be an opportunity to provide a public educational platform on harmful traditional practices and how to overcome these in our march forward, as a modern democracy, and thereby enhance speedy economic development and better lives for the people of Ghana,” he said.

Daanaa explained that harmful traditional and customary practices such as female genital mutilation, widowhood inheritance and child betrothal abused the human rights and dignity of the individual.The first of these programs, with financial support from the U. S. Embassy, he said, would take place early next year, with focus on witch camps in the northern part of Ghana.

In Ghana and many parts of Africa, due to the existence of many tribes and languages, many of the cultural traits which were handed over from one generation to another are still being practiced today.

However, despite the fact that culture was meant to control the values and norms of the society, the majority of them today seem to have outlived their usefulness and tend to undermine people’s fundamental human rights, especially those of women.  

One of such negative cultural practice is that of the "Trokosi” system of virtual slavery whereby a young girl is forcibly sent to a shrine to serve as the wife of a fetish priest to atone for an offence committed by a relative.  

There have been calls from several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), chiefs and other stakeholders in traditional settings for the reformation or abolition of all forms of negative traditional and cultural practices.

This is because such practices or outmoded customs affect mostly women, girls and persons with disability and continue to violate their sexual and reproductive rights.

Daanaa said one of the key values of his outfit was the promotion of international partnerships and key relationships, adding that the ministry received a 14-member delegation of chiefs from Zambia.

Xinhua