Justice Gloria Mensah-Bonsu

A High Court Judge of the Gender Based Violence (GBV) Department has called for a second look at Section 101(1) of the Criminal Offences Act 29 to ensure proper compensation for defilement victims.

According to the Act, one who com­mits such a criminal offence was liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of seven years minimum or 25 years maximum.

This is a strict liability law with no option of a fine, according to the Judge, Justice Gloria Mensah-Bonsu.

She has observed that many parents/ families of victims of sexual molestation have been using cases as commodities for money making, thus not allowing such cases to go to their logical conclu­sions because they would not be com­pensated.

But, “if the law is amended so that there is an option for a fine for victims, such cases can go to their logical conclu­sions, because the family will know that at the end, they will get something.”

“That would be in addition to a term of imprisonment, so that if the perpetra­tor can pay a certain amount and go in for just a year, that person may even opt for that instead of seven or 25 years,” she stated.

Justice Mensah-Bonsu said this in an interview with The Spectator at a training on sexual exploitation and abuse prevention and response action plan.

It was organised by the GAMA/GKMA Project of the World Bank under the Min­istry of Sanitation and Water Resources.

The Judge noted that most of the cases were perpetrated against people of low income class, some of whom lacked access to water and toilet facili­ties and so found such cases a commod­ity to make money because of intimida­tion and stigmatisation.

However, what they forget, she indicated was not the physical effect on the child but the long term psychologi­cal and emotional effects which would come later to play in their lives.

She urged parents/families of such victims to allow cases end logically so the law will deal with perpetrators to serve as deterrent for others.

Justice Mensah-Bonsu recalled a case she dealt with which the victim became pregnant.

She said “the perpetrator had only an ‘Aboboya’ which I went ahead to confis­cate and gave it to the Registrar to work with it to provide money for the upkeep of the girl, since there was the need to take care of her.”

“The law is not looking at all these, so I think it should be looked at again,” she said.

The immediate past Head of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of Ashanti Region, Chief Superintendent (Rtd) Susan Dery, men­tioned challenges police went through in prosecuting cases such as lack of support from families/parents due to negotia­tions for money.

She also identified withdrawal of cases due to money they would pay to medical doctors for proof of defilement without which there could be no evi­dence.

Mrs. Charlotte Adjei Marfo, Capac­ity Building and Training Coordinator of the GAMA Project of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, urged households to have toilets to reduce the incidence of sexual abuse.

She said the Ministry was supportive in providing places of convenience in households to reduce such incidences of girls and even boys being abused in line of going to toilet or fetching water.

The training was part of the Minis­try of Sanitation and Water Resources November 19, 2021 launch of the GK­MA-SWP project as part of government’s determination to find lasting solution to the water and sanitation problems in the country.

The World Bank funded project is expected to construct 30,000 household toilet facilities in the GKMA before the close of the project in December 2024, with the bio-digester toilet system being the main containment technology.

It is an extension of the Greater Ac­cra Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP), which started from 2015.

In Kumasi, the project is being implemented in eight Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies (MMAs) – Asokwa, Oforikrom, Old Tafo, Suame, Kwadaso, Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and Ejisu Municipality.

From Kingsley E. Hope, Kumasi