ABANTU, WMC condemn recent attacks on EC Boss

ABANTU for Development and the Women’s Manifesto Coalition (WMC) has frowned against the increasing rate of attacks on women who take up leadership positions in our country.

The recent numerous personal attacks and abuse and now the threat of death to the Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Jean Mensah are revolting, horrendous, awful, and unacceptable.

A statement issued jointly by the two organisations said in recent times, women in Ghana have managed to ascend to very high profile positions of leadership, some for the first time- the first woman Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood; the first woman Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei; the first woman Speaker of Parliament, Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo and others.

The Executive Director ABANTU for Development Rose Mensah-Kutin (PhD) in the statement explained that these women and others served under the barrage of vitriol and threats, approval, and disapproval from various sections of our citizenry.

“Unfortunately, we have sat in our comfort zones of incredulity, that now these abhorrent, vile, incendiary and contemptible verbal attacks are passing the threshold into threats of death,” she expressed worry.

Nevertheless, they contributed in no small way, in progressing the aspirations and motivations of so many other women and helped push the nation’s required mandate of promoting women in institutional arrangements for sustainable development.

According to her, ABANTU for Development and the Women Manifesto Coalition have been consistent in their support and defence of women in national policy and decision spaces.

This she said, as organisations, they will continue to advocate for the need for Ghana to hold itself accountable to its constitutional mandate of increasing women’s equal participation and representation in public policy making and decision making at all levels.

“We are deeply saddened that women in leadership positions have faced multiple insults and acts of degradation over the years while performing their assigned and constitutionally mandated duties.

We want to assure Mrs. Jean Mensa that we recognise the difficulties associated with serving in such a combative position as the Electoral Commissioner trying to satisfy strong diverse political viewpoints in the hope of delivering universally acceptable democratic and electoral outcomes.

What we will continue to condemn are threats of harm and death because those too contribute to the highest level of denial of human rights,” she assured.

More so, we will however continue to support efforts at building consensus, compliance with constitutional mandates and the promotion of human rights, women’s rights and democratic governance.

ABANTU for Development is a non-governmental organisation which has the vision of a world where empowered women and men advocate collectively on gender inequalities through promoting transformational leadership and development for a just society.

It hosts the Women’s Manifesto Coalition (WMC) that spearheaded the development of the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana, a living political but non-partisan document that outlines key issues of concern to women and makes demands for addressing them.