An interviewing room being commissioned for Madina DOVVSU
“THE MOST painful thing in life is to walk in town knowing very well that everybody knows your past and what goes on in your day to day life,” were the words of a 45 years old trader, who for lack of privacy, became a laughing stock in her area thereby forcing her to leave her matrimonial home five years ago.
Lydia Quansah (not real name) was married to a policeman and lived with her husband at Odorkor Police Barracks.
“I was facing serious marital issues and abuse in my marriage, a situation most of the police officers at the barracks were aware of.”
She said her husband was a bully who often assaulted her even in public at the least provocation.
“One day, my husband brutally assaulted me and even threatened to kill me in the presence of some police officers at the barracks. When he left for work, I decided to report him to the nearest police station. I was not expecting him to be arrested but I thought, if I am able to report him, as a police officer himself, he would be made to sign a bond never to touch me again,” she said.
Lydia was at the charge office to report the matter when a Chief Inspector who was a friend to her husband, sacked her from the station.
“I had then arrived and told the Counter Non Commissioned Officer (NCO) that I was there to report the abuse of my husband. At that point, I was so confused, got home and was praying that chief does not tell my husband that I tried lodging a complaint against him…” she said.
Madam Magdalene, mother of an eight-year old girl who was also defiled by a next door neigbour also recounted how they were denied justice at the court.
She said even though the matter was taken to court by the police, the accused was acquitted and discharged after his victim was not able to render accurate testimony during the trial proceedings.
“Freeing the accused person did not mean my daughter fabricated the story. I realised she was nervous anytime the accused was present in court but there was nothing I could do about that,” she added.
Privacy
One way to understand the differences between confidentiality and privacy is to conceptualise each as a closet containing all the personal information that a victim wishes to keep shielded from public view.
However, the structure of most of Ghana’s police station prevents victims of gender-based violence (GBV) who are going through physical, emotional and psychological trauma to report their cases to the law enforcement officers for justice.
Another key challenge identified is the manner in which cases concerning children are heard in court.
In most sexual violence cases, both the perpetrator and the victim are physically present in the courtroom and this makes it difficult for the victim to render accurate testimonies during the trial process as in the case of Magdalene.
Interviewing Rooms
The availability of special interviewing rooms at the various police stations for such special cases and the provision of child-friendly specialised courts that will provide a conducive atmosphere for the child either as a victim, witness or offender to render accurate testimony without fear or intimidation, is appropriate.
A DOVVSU coordinator, who spoke anonymously, said the lack of structures for DOVVSU personnel at the various divisional commands make it difficult for them to interview victims of abuse in confidentiality.
“What I have realised is that some of the victims, in the course of the interrogation, show signs of discomfort but since we have no option, we pretend not to have seen and continue,” she said.
“The government and police administration must consider redesigning a structure for DOVVSU offices if we want to keep the identities of abuse victims secret,” she appealed.
Statistics from the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service have indicated that a total of 131 sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases were recorded in Ghana between October 2020 and March 2021.
Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department, Commissioner of Police (COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah, has revealed that 1,047 girls were defiled, while 305 women were raped in 2020.
Even though he did not share figures on cases of defilement and rape in the past, he said about 15,000 cases of violence against women were reported to law enforcement agencies annually.
The number of reported cases, he indicated, was less than the actual number of incidents that occurred in the year.
He, however, admitted that reported cases of gender based violence do not progress at the various stations where the reports were received adding the conviction rate has been low.
A child protection specialist who is in charge of the Justice for Children Programme at UNICEF, Hilda Mensah, says privacy is key in cases of SGBV which is why UNICEF is making the efforts to support every DOVVSU office within the country with a well equipped interviewing room for such cases.
She said, an interviewing room is a special facility or building that helps women and girls speak to the police in a manner that would increase their access to justice.
“UNICEF has so far put up three interviewing rooms for DOVVSU offices in Ashaiman, Madina (in the greater Accra Region) and Kasoa in the Central Region, while three others are still under construction,” she said.
Justice Jones Dotse, a Supreme Court Judge, confirms that the Judicial Service of Ghana, in its resolve to help minimise the incident of GBV in our society, has taken a number of steps towards curbing the menace.
He said reforms taken by the service have been the establishment of specialised courts aimed at ensuring effective and efficient administration of justice for specific types of cases or offences.
Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery, also said the availability of the requisite services of survivors of domestic violence was crucial in the fight against domestic violence and efforts at addressing impunity.
Ghana’s commitment to the protection of women and children from violence is evident in its ratification of international treaties and the subsequent, incorporation into our laws.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey