Pass the Affirmative Action Bill-MASLOC CEO appeals to Parliament
The Bill proposes that anyone who insults a woman just because she is vying for public office should be liable for prosecution.
The CEO of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Hajia Abibata Zakariah has called on Parliament to see to the immediate passage of the Affirmative Action Bill.
According to her, if passed, the bill will deal with the issue of discrimination against women in the various spheres of our country’s public life.
“It has to be deliberate. I don’t know why this Affirmative Action Bill has been in parliament for so long. Other bills come and they get passed [but] that one, for some reasons, is always left,” she noted.
Speaking in an interview on Prime Morning on JoyNEWs channel, she further bemoaned the fact that due to the patriarchal nature of our society, women are mostly at the receiving end relative to unfair treatment.
“Women are always not treated fairly but I think that mindset has to change. I don’t see why certain things done by men will be okay but when they are done by women, it’s wrong,” she indicated.
The Affirmative Action Bill seeks a 50/50 per cent representation and participation of both women and men in governance, public positions of power, and all decision-making spaces of the country.
It also requires all sectors to reserve a percentage of their employment for women. Political parties are also to be encouraged to adopt voluntary party quotas to promote women’s participation in party politics.
The Bill mandates all public institutions to adopt gender policies, including recruitment policies, aimed at achieving a balanced structuring of those institutions in terms of gender.
The Bill proposes that anyone who insults a woman just because she is vying for public office should be liable for prosecution.
Clause 38 of the draft bill provides that, a person who victimizes, obstructs or exerts undue influence and submits a female politician to verbal attack, among others, commits an offence.
Furthermore, Hajia Zakaria called on Ghana’s leadership to emulate the example of Rwanda and others by laying the over 10-year-old bill before Parliament.
