Gender
Trapped in Limbo: Teenager girls caught between consent and marriage laws
- /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
https://spectator.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/child-picture-1000x575.jpg&description=Trapped in Limbo: Teenager girls caught between consent and marriage laws', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
- Share
- Tweet /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
https://spectator.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/child-picture-1000x575.jpg&description=Trapped in Limbo: Teenager girls caught between consent and marriage laws', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
A child according to Ghana’s Children’s Act, 1998, is any person below the age of 18 years and it clearly states that the best interest of the child shall be paramount in any matter concerning the child.
Again, it says the best interest of the child shall be the primary consideration by any court, person, institution or other body in any matter concerning the child.
According to Section 14 of the Act, ‘no person shall force a child to be betrothed, be a subject of a dowry transaction; or be married’.
The minimum age of marriage of whatever kind, it stated, shall be 18 years.
Ghana’s minimum age for sex
However, Ghana’s minimum age of consent to sex is ‘16’ years old. At this age, an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participate in a sexual activity.
Ghana’s statutory rape law is therefore violated when an individual has consensual sexual contact with a person under age 16.
At the age of 16 years, most children in the part of the sub-region depend on their parents or guardians for their wellbeing-education, physiological needs (food, shelter, clothing, other basic necessities), and health needs among others.
When such a child, especially a female is legally permitted to consent to a sexual activity, it then means the child ‘should’ be able to take responsibility for whatever may be the effect of the sexual activity.
Disregard for loopholes in age consent to sex
A position paper on harmonising the age of sexual consent and the age of marriage in Ghana by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and UNICEF Ghana, states that despite the concerns arising from the disparity in age of sexual consent and age of marriage, it is noted that there have been limited legal interventions.
So far, it said attention had been on the campaign to end child marriages and much consideration had not been given to the age of sexual consent in the country.
In Ghana, sex is not a topic that is easily discussed in the open. The socio-cultural dynamics between parents and their children make it difficult for children to discuss their sexuality freely with older members of their family.
Exacerbated by the ubiquity of social media, the result is that many young children and adolescents learn about sex from peers, internet sources and experimentation. If a child is too young to marry before the age of 18, is he/she old enough to have sex at 16 years?
In their consultations, they found out people were far more willing to accept boys’ interest in sex as natural, than teenaged girls’ interest, which was regarded as wayward, and symptomatic of some deficiency in a girl’s upbringing or in the girl herself.
Statistics
In Ghana, many adolescents aged 15 to 18, whether married or not, have had sexual intercourse, according to the United Nations Population Fund report in 2016.
Additionally, 12 per cent of girls and nine per cent of boys have had sex before the age of 15 and statistics further show that 10 per cent of teens under 15 years are having sex.
A survey conducted by the Ghana Demographic Health (GDHS) in 2008 revealed that 44 per cent of young people have sex before age 18 and most initiate it at age 15.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, between 2008 and 2014, the percentage of men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 who reported having sexual intercourse at age 15 decreased only one point, from 12 to 11 per cent (GSS 2015).
Furthermore, it has been estimated that four in 10 Ghanaian women and two in 10 men aged 15–19 have had sex before. (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2004).
Experiences of survivors
In an engagement with Martha Asante, a 17-year old school dropout, she said: “I got pregnant at 16 and was forced to drop out of school. If the age of consent to sex was 18, I might have avoided this situation.
Since we were taught in school you can have sex at 16, I just gave in to a man who showed interest easily.”
Another, Naa Lamiokor Tagoe, a survivor of a child marriage, says: “I was married at 17 and had to endure physical and emotional abuse. If the legal age of marriage was enforced, I might have been spared this ordeal.”
Expert’s concerns
Mr Abdulai Jaladeen, the Upper East Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), at the celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child in Bolgatanga, appealed to the Gender Ministry to lead the crusade for a memo to be sent to Parliament for the law to be amended.
The delay in reviewing the age of consent to sex, he said, allowed culprits of child sexual abuses to go scot free. “When an adult impregnates a child at the age of 16, the law can catch up on you, but some of these people go behind to influence parents and even the victim.
And once the girl appears before a judge, and says I consented, the judge and prosecutors cannot do anything,” he noted.
Mr Jaladeen explained that if the law was changed from 16 to 18, men who fell foul to the law against girls below the age of 18 years would be punished fairly no matter the culprit’s financial and social standing.
He also called for a review of the Children’s Act to give stiffer punishment to people who give their girls out for early marriages to serve as deterrent to others, adding that the fine of GH¢500 for convicting an offender of the law was too minimal and suggested that a provision that spelt out modalities be made to compel the culprit to ensure that her education was not halted.
Dr Ndonwie Peter, National Executive Secretary of Girls Not Brides-Ghana, a network of non-governmental organisations, said the results of early sex at 16 was pregnancy, which truncated the education of girls as they were in many instances forced to cohabitate or marry those responsible for impregnating them.
He explained that the harmonisation of such laws to peg the minimum age of girls consenting to sex at 18 years, would help to control the increasing rate of early and forced marriages.
Challenges
Problems associated with child sex before marriage is intimate partner violence, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancy, early childbirth including unsafe abortions and infringements on their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The sexual relation involving a child usually occurs between her and an adult.
Therefore the older persons often take advantage of the girls and give them little or no room to negotiate for safe sex.
The WHO states that at 16 years or lower, the biological constitute of the girl might pose as a threat to childbirth and girls who engage in sexual activities are more likely to get pregnant, a condition that puts them at risk of experiencing stillbirths, miscarriages, eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections.
The babies might also suffer preterm birth, low birth weight due to young maternal age at birth, and severe neonatal condition. Many teenagers at age 16 engage in sexual intercourse not for procreation, but out of curiosity or for the fun of it and aside its consequences, the teenage mother may not be prepared for marriage or be legally permitted to marry.
To avoid shame, the parents of the female children may force their daughters to marry the man who impregnated them.
The situation is more common in the coastal communities and the Northern part of the country, where the pregnant girl is forced to live with the man responsible and/or his family, reports have stated.
Ghana as a country that is hungry for growth with all parties involved such as government, civil society organisation, development partners and donor agencies, parents, students, religious and traditional leaders, the media as well as legal practitioners, need to analyse carefully if an addition to the population through unwanted pregnancies by children is positive and should be encouraged.
If a child born of a child is not well taken care of due to inadequate finances, that child becomes a burden on society and the government at large. They gradually join the large population to depend on the fewer resources, and thereby harden the lives of the citizenry much more. -GNA
Across many rural communities, midwives continue to provide care in circumstances that tests their skills, patience and resilience.
They attend to women at all hours, manage emergencies, work with limited supplies and support mothers and newborns even when the resources available to them are far from adequate.
Their work may often go unnoticed, but for the mothers and babies whose lives they touch, the presence of a committed midwife can make all the difference.
At Jeffisi in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region, demands of the job as a midwife meant that Hafisatu Sadik Gbanha does not close from work when she should.
Antenatal care (ANC) services at the facility officially ran from 8am to 2pm but labour and delivery cases could come at any time.
A woman in labour could arrive after the ANC session had ended, late in the evening or in the early hours of the morning, and Mrs Gbanha had to be ready to attend to her.
Sometimes, she works through the day and night, depending on the number of cases that comes to the facility.
“I used to live in the facility. ANC services start at 8am and end at 2pm. Labour and delivery cases were managed anytime they arrived. So I can work day and night alone depending on the number of cases that come to the facility,” she recalled.
Her experience gives an insight into the realities of maternal healthcare in rural Ghana, where midwives often have to work under demanding conditions while dealing with shortages of equipment, medicines and other basic supplies.
Mrs Gbanha identified lack of logistics, heavy workloads, overtime, stress and burnout among the major challenges she faces at Jeffisi.
The situation, she said was made more difficult by poverty among some clients and poor road networks, particularly when women needed to be referred to higher-level facilities for further care.
At the facility, some essential items were unavailable, including a fetal Doppler, a standard delivery bed, gloves, basic life-support medicines and machines.
For a midwife handling a difficult delivery, the absence of such basic resources can turn an already challenging situation into a desperate one.
One particular delivery remains with Mrs Gbanha. It involved a woman carrying twins. One of the babies was presenting in a breech position while the other was presenting cephalically.
At the time, there were no gloves available. With the delivery needing immediate attention, Mrs Gbanha improvised by using rubber gloves.
Both babies were eventually delivered, although they had low birth weight. She recommended that the mother be referred for further management, but the woman declined.
Mrs Gbanha then initiated bonding, exclusive breastfeeding and kangaroo mother care for the babies. She also conducted home visits for two weeks to monitor the mother and her newborns. The twins are now two years old.
The experience, she said, reflects the difficult decisions rural midwives sometimes have to make when resources are limited and a patient needs care beyond what the facility can provide.
In such situations, early referral and reliable transportation to a higher-level facility are critical, yet arranging transportation and referrals can be a major challenge.
Mrs Gbanha said arranging referral could be very difficult citing poverty and poor road networks as major factors.
For women in rural communities, access to maternal healthcare can also be affected by factors outside the health facility.
Mrs Gbanha identified ignorance, lack of family support, including support from husbands, long distances and poor roads as some of the reasons women delay seeking antenatal and maternity care.
Such delays can have serious consequences when complications develop and urgent care is required. The consequences, she said, can include complications from disease conditions and, sometimes, loss of life.
Challenges
While much of the attention in maternal healthcare focuses on mothers and babies, the demands placed on the midwives providing such care is sometimes overlooked.
Rural midwives are faced with long working hours, heavy workloads, overtime and the pressure of dealing with emergencies which often takes a toll on them physically and emotionally.
This could lead to stress, depression and burnout, adding that rural midwives often receive little support.
Despite these difficulties, Mrs Gbanha said there are moments that make the work worthwhile.
She said seeing mothers and their babies healthy and happy remains one of her greatest sources of satisfaction while drawing strength from the trust that women place in her, particularly when former clients continue to call her by name for her services and assistance.
Those moments, she said, remind her why she chose the profession.
Way Forward
Mrs Gbanha urged government and policymakers to better understand the realities of working in rural communities and provide midwives with the resources and training they need.
“Rural midwives lack support and basic logistics and on-the-job training that will aid them carry out their duties,” she said.
She called for greater support for rural midwives, including basic logistics and regular on-the-job training.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
The Founder of The Raissa Child Protection Initiative (TRCPI), Ms Raissa Sambou, has called for intensified efforts to eliminate child labour across Africa, describing the practice as a serious violation of children’s rights and a major threat to their development and future.
She urged governments, individuals, civil society organisations, religious bodies, and traditional and religious leaders to work together to protect children from all forms of labour that deprive them of their childhood, education, and well-being.
Ms Sambou made the call on Thursday as the world marked the World Day Against Child Labour, an annual observance held on June 12 to raise awareness about child labour and mobilise action towards its elimination. This year’s commemoration was observed under the theme, “Red Card to Child Labour: Fair Play for Children, Decent Work for Adults.”
According to her, child labour continues to affect thousands of children across Ghana and other parts of Africa, exposing them to exploitation and denying them opportunities to reach their full potential.
“Child labour can affect the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of children. It interrupts their education, exposes them to abuse and exploitation, increases their risk of injuries and long-term health problems, and limits their chances of breaking the cycle of poverty,” she stated.
Ms Sambou further noted that children engaged in labour often suffer from low self-esteem, social exclusion and trauma, with many unable to acquire the skills and education needed to contribute meaningfully to national development.
She stressed that protecting children was a collective responsibility and called for stronger enforcement of child protection laws, increased public awareness, and greater investment in social protection programmes for vulnerable families.
Ms Sambou also identified poverty as one of the major drivers of child labour and warned that failure to address economic hardship would continue to expose children to exploitation and other forms of abuse.
She called on policymakers to strengthen interventions aimed at reducing poverty, improving access to quality education and supporting struggling households.
“We must not allow ignorance and poverty to thrive. When poverty is not adequately addressed, it fuels child labour and other crimes against children. Let the systems work effectively to shield every child from harm and give them the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed,” she added.
The World Day Against Child Labour was established by the International Labour Organisation in 2002 to focus global attention on the need to eradicate child labour and protect the rights and welfare of children worldwide.
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
