Parents have been advised not see or handle children from reformation centers as community outcasts or failures. The project coordinator for ‘Child Justice’ at the Legal Resources Center, lawyer Clarke Noyoru gave this counsel in Tamale during a one day workshop to engage stakeholders of children’s rights and justice in the Northern region. He said, parents must receive the children in good faith and give them all the support they need in order to integrate them into the society without any difficulty. “A child’s crime is a reflection of the inability of the parents and the society to mold the child and the fact that your child has erred doesn’t mean you reject that child but rather create a hospitable system for the child to continue with life by going back to school or learning a trade if he or she prefer that” Lawyer Noyoru said. He cited the story of the prodigal son in the bible as a guide for parents to stand on to always give their children from the reformation centers a fine handling. The project coordinator however appealed to law enforcement agencies to sanction children who commit crime in a child friendly manner and in accordance to the laws of the country. “We are not encouraging children to blunder but if they do, I will plead that our law enforcement agencies should use child-friendly measures to correct the erred child” He added. Legal Resources Centre (LRC), a nongovernmental human rights organisation, in April this year launched the ‘Child Justice Project’ to create an enabling environment for the protection of children. The three-year project, supported by the European Union (EU), is to bridge the gap between legislation and practice within the Ghanaian Child Justice system. It is aimed at ensuring the right input to facilitate the review and amendment of child related legislation for the promotion and protection of child rights.
Source: http://www.rainbowradioonline.com/index.php/general-news/item/14226-do-not-despise-reformed-children-lawyer
