Children's Rights in Ghana

Reviews / Votes

Children's Rights in Ghana is a very valuable and compelling addition to the growing evidence of gaps between the promise of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its reality in practice. With its cogent organization, clear writing, and comprehensive coverage, the chapters provide a useful yardstick against which progress readily can be assessed. -- Katherine Covell, Executive Director of Cape Breton University Children's Rights Centre Children's Rights in Ghana leads the reader into a new world of understanding of the condition of children in Ghana and especially, the evolution of their identity and rights since colonial times. The various contributors bring together historical, socio-cultural and legal and economic explanations and reflections on the position of children in Ghanaian society. -- Ellen Aryeetey, Director of the Centre for Social Policy Studies, University of Ghana This is a key text and probably the first of its kind that focuses on Africa. While Ghana was one of the first signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, relatively little work in and on Ghana has looked at children's issues over the past 20 years. This book completely remedies this lack and its contents-from an excellent mix of longer-standing experts in the field and younger scholars bringing new perspectives and energy-analyse both the theoretical problems of childhood (definitions, identities and accepted local practices) and the contemporary policy/implementation issues, as well as the thorny universalization of human rights questions. All are covered with a clarity and comprehensiveness rare in such collections. The editors and contributors are to be congratulated. -- Lynne Brydon, Director of the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham