us to reflect on advances in the struggle to improve the conditions of women. It is not important for us to pay mere lip-service to the advancement of the conditions of women. We need to ensure that we carry out the structural reforms that are needed to transform the situation of women in our society.
Mr. Speaker, I wish also to deplore the situation where we seem to be promoting the welfare of women and at the same time taking very subtle measures to destroy women's organisations that in our opinion do not seem politically correct. There are outstanding constitutional obligations regarding the rights of women about which this Parliament, after over 13 years, has not lived up to its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, if we look at article 22 (2) of our Constitution, it imposes an obligation on this Parliament to enact a legislation regulating the property rights of spouses. Of course, “spouses” is gender neutral but the reality is that the fulfilment of this constitutional obligation would go a long way to ameliorate the conditions of women in our society.
Obviously property ownership issues are key in determining power relations between men and women in families. So if after 13 years we have ignored the constitutional obligations that have been imposed on this House to enact a legislation dealing with the property right of spouses, I must say this is a deplorable situation.
I will therefore urge this House to take advantage of the fact that this is the International Women's Day, to take steps to ensure that as a House we fulfil our constitutional obligations to live up to the promise to ensure that we put in place structures that would, in the long-term,
ensure that real empowerment comes to women. Merely appointing a few women to deputy ministerial positions and a very small number to full ministerial positions is not enough.
There are many women out there on a daily basis who have their properties being taken away from them, who have no share in properties that they have worked for so many years with their husbands to create, and yet the law is silent and ignores the sufferings of all such women.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to reiterate our obligations, as a Parliament, to take steps to pass legislation that will correct this historical injustice that women have suffered for far too long.
Mrs. Angelina Baiden-Amissah
(NPP -- Shama): Mr. Speaker, I rise to associate myself with the Statement made by hon. Member for Bantama on the International Women's Day.
Mr. Speaker, the 8th of March has been earmarked by the United Nation (UN) and, in fact, the whole world to celebrate Women's Day, and for the year 2005, the theme was, “Women 2005 -- Building a more Secure Future”. This was proposed by the UN. In Ghana the theme for our celebration was, “Women -- Inspiring Hope and Responsibility”.
Mr. Speaker, this celebration is to recognise the tremendous efforts of women in nation-building. All of us here are aware that without women in the home, the home will be tilting towards a place, which cannot be described. Let a woman leave the home for 3 days and the man goes kicking here and there, not knowing how to take care of the children, not knowing how to take care of the home. This is to tell you that the women are essential in the home. This is the reason why it is said in the Holy Bible that a man shall leave his home, go and take a woman and together stay with her so that there will
be procreation, and at least, the woman can take care of the home.
Mr. Speaker, despite all the efforts that women are putting in nation-building, women are going through a lot of problems. For example, the dual role of women -- women taking up their traditional roles as mothers and as wives and as homemakers in conjunction with working to bring something home to supplement the effort of the husband -- is not easy. At least, those of us women here know that it is not easy doing all these, waking up at 4.00 a.m., putting everything right at home and then starting off to come to work. It is not easy at all and when one comes to work, one has to settle well, take all the files around and work well with them. So you can imagine what women go through. This is the reason why women should be well recognised in society.
Women are very good decision-makers. Men know that they cannot take decisions without their wives; otherwise the decision falls flat. It becomes insipid because the little efforts, the little ideas that the woman will bring, at least, will go to enrich the home so that something good can come out of it. Anytime men decide to do things quietly behind the women, they do not end up well.
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to taking care of our children's education, there are a lot of men who are very responsible and who take the chunk in taking care of the education of our children. However, there are a few men who are irresponsible and who will not have any hand in the education of their children and for which reason, it becomes the burden of the woman who bears it quietly without complaining.
Mr. Speaker, apart from these, there
are other challenges facing women, what we call the negative traditional practices, the trokosi, for instance, which we have fought against and which Parliament has also fought against. We have moved to those areas to crush them but some chiefs in some of these areas like Klikor, Bakpa try to justify this negative practice of trokosi by a Greek law.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine women going through this traditional servitude and I pray that in no time, it will come to an end. There was a time we visited a place, in 2003, and by the end of that year, it had come on air that one hundred women had been freed from the trokosi shrine. In 2004, one hundred and twelve were also freed, which means we are making strides.
Mr. Speaker, even the female genital mutilation that we are talking about, I think this must also be taken out from our society because this is not the type of circumcision that men go through; ours is mutilation. I do not think any man would be happy to realize that the labia minora and the labia majora have both been removed -- [Hear! Hear!] -- such that the woman looks clumsy if you want to visit the woman. I expect that all men will join us in this fight.
Mr. Speaker, women are making strides. At least, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEADAW) is doing well in Ghana. Ghana has ratified it and has even ratified its optional protocol. The Beijing Platform for Action is also actually working. We also have the Millennium Development Goals, 2005 talking about gender parity.
It is actually doing well in Ghana, and even “Education for All” is also doing well with us. I believe that all men would join their fellow women to fight against any problem, any menace in society with regard to gender inequality as we celebrate this day. At least, we have women -- The
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) boss is a woman, the Deputy Inspector- General of Police is also a woman; the boss of the Ghana Immigration Service is also a woman.
We also have a lot of women in the media and we have a lot of women in Parliament now. In 2004, we had nineteen; now we have twenty-five women. I believe that in the next Parliament, we would have forty women -- [Hear! Hear!] -- so that we can balance our male counterparts in this Parliament.
As we celebrate our day, I salute all women. I urge all of them to fight hard. The struggle is ours; this is the time to fight. We should not let our husbands take the lead; it is for us to take the lead and fight so that they protect us from behind.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you and I salute all women.