Lexington Books Children's Rights in Ghana: Reality or Rhetoric?

This is the first book that examines Ghana's compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ghana being the first country to ratify the Convention, it thus fills an important gap in the literature on Ghana. The book throws a searchlight on a wide range of rights issues including children's identity, violence against children and women, child exploitation and children in conflict with the law plus a host of other CRC related issues and further identifies and explains the main obstacles in the way of realizing children's rights in Ghana. A major strength of this book is that the contributors, Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians alike have vast experience in empirical research in Ghana and most importantly, come from diverse academic disciplines. Researchers, instructors, and students of Social Work, Sociology, Criminology Human Rights, Education and Law, are examples of a few academic disciplines that would find this book a welcome relief in their search for relevant and current data on children's issues in Ghana. It should also be of great interest to policy makers, human rights activists, Children's NGOs and international development partners interested in children's issues. Review 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 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 About the Author Robert Kwame Ame is assistant professor of human rights and criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University. DeBrenna LaFa Agbényiga is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and assistant dean for equity, diverity, and inclusive academic affairs in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. Nana Araba Apt is professor of sociology and dean of academic affairs at Ashesi University College in Accra, Ghana.