Speaking during an interview with this medium in his Bakoteh office, Mr Fatty said the country has a couple of comprehensive laws but they have never been translated into addressing issues affecting the children.
“We have people within the law enforcement agencies who are not aware of the laws or lack understanding of the legal framework of protecting children. Sometimes, instead of giving protection to the victims, they further expose the victim to other violations.”
He said human rights protection is an expensive venture, adding that one must be able to build a robust protection mechanism in the country by looking at the adequacy of the laws to address issues, response mechanism, institutions, human resources and investment.
Fatty further stated that the government is not putting anything in terms of programmes or anything relating to children.
“It is petty that when you look at our national budget up to date, you cannot tangibly say this is the amount allocated to children. When I talk of budget allocation, I am not only looking at the central level that has less than 2% of the budget and out of the 2%, nothing goes out for the children, but also the local government.”
Unfortunately, he said, one can go through government programmes without seeing anything visibly for children in terms of programs and activities and initiatives.
Dwelling on the community perspective towards protecting children, he explained that most of the violations come from the community, adding that child labour and other domestic violence against children seem to be culturally accepted in punishing a child or engaging a child in works that will compromise the child's health.
“One of the commitment government has to fulfill is to create a conducive environment for children. We have lots of inconsistencies within the national legal framework. It’s sometimes confusing when it comes to interpretation of these laws.”
