|
Choose women as Presidents, not running mates - Bossman
Accra, Feb. 7, Ghanadot/GNA - Ms Anna
Bossman, Acting Commissioner of the Commission for Human
Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on Thursday asked
political parties to consider women as more capable of
becoming flag bearers instead of assigning them the
supportive role as running mates.
She said parties must fully support women by implementing
affirmative action and removing structural barriers in the
political system that impeded their initiative to vie for
the presidential slot.
Speaking at a two-day workshop on Gender Mainstreaming
organized by CHRAJ for its officers in Accra, Ms Bossman
said opting for women as running mates instead of the
Presidency was evident of lack of gender mainstreaming in
the country's political system.
The workshop was aimed at sensitizing CHRAJ officers in the
regional and district offices to be more gender sensitive in
handling complaints.
The Commissioner also expressed regret that after several
years of democracy in Ghana, the country was not doing so
well on gender mainstreaming issues and most policies and
societal concepts were still not responsive to disparity.
"We must as country stop the habit of comparing ourselves to
the worse countries, We should rather strive to improve our
gender issues and compare our performance to the best", she
added.
She bemoaned misconceptions of the concept "Gender" which
was often associated to feminism or sex in terms of male and
female, saying that gender was rather defined as roles
society assigned to a particular sex.
She explained that a particular society’s definition of the
weakness and strengths of the male or female would determine
the roles either sex would perform, hence gender
implications vary from culture to culture but it ought not
to be discriminatory.
Ms Bossman said the Commission would push for the
implementation of affirmative action at all levels.
Professor Ken Attafuah, Executive Director of the Justice
Human Rights Institute and facilitator of the workshop said
gender was culturally constructed, hence the need for a
collective effort to address its negative effects on human
rights.
GNA
|
