The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Ghana and Article 4

Article 4 states that, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery, and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.’’
Slavery has been abolished but still exists in some disguise form in Ghana. For example, Children in Ghana, especially those in the rural areas, who don ’t have the opportunity to attend school, migrate to the urban areas to serve as house helps and maidservants. Their masters and mistresses most often do not treat them well. Some of them are subject to severe beating, some even end up being raped by their masters or other boys in the house in which they live, and they can do nothing than to keep quiet and stay there in other to earn their means of living for survival. This is despite the fact that there are laws regarding child labour in Ghana. These laws are simply not enforced.
Also, in the Northern part of Ghana, at a town called Gambaga there is a Witch camp where people suspected of witchcraft are camped for the rest of their lives. These people are usually elderly people who have no means of livelihood. Majority of these people are women.

In the Volta Region of Ghana there is a system called the “Trokosi” system. In this system young virgin girls are sent to the trokosi shrines to serve the gods of the shrine and marry the priest whiles under slavery. These young girls are sent to the shrines for sins committed by their family members to appease the gods of that shrine. They are made to stay there till they grow into old women and die. They are also not allowed to go out. Some few organizations such as the Federation of Women Lawyers, and some NGOs have recently helped freed some of these women and resettled them in useful vocations.

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