Legal Framework for the Protection of Children’s Rights in Ghana

Abstract

Children are a category of vulnerable persons in societies who need adequate protection. Relatives and guardians provide physical protection to children under them. Collectively as a nation however, it is expected that we provide for our children. This paper discusses the legal frameworks that provide protection for the rights of children in Ghana. The paper contends that there are enough legal instruments in the country that provide protection for the rights of children. The major challenge is the failure to enforce the provisions in these legal instruments. The paper identifies the 1992 Constitution and the Children’s Act, 1998 as major sources of protection for rights of children along the line of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which Ghana was the first to ratify. The paper does this by identifying some areas of children rights and providing how these documents and many other relevant Acts provide for their protection. There is indeed the need to enforce the elaborate legal provisions for the protection of the rights of children.