Tuesday, 10th February, 2026
Hon Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe
Ada
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity.
Today, I stand before this House with a heavy heart to address the pressing issues of domestic violence in our society. We have constantly been speaking and addressing the issues of domestic violence in our society. Last year, we discussed the issue of Madam Harriet Amuzu, a mother of two who was assaulted by her husband in a viral video. Just recently, there was another case of domestic violence where a young man was seen brutalising his girlfriend in a viral video on social media.
Mr Speaker, this is absurd. This act of constant violation on women is very unacceptable. This does not just apply to women, but children and men can also be victims. There have been equally trending videos of children being assaulted by their guardians. No woman, no man and certainly no child should ever have to go through such cruelty within a space that is supposed to offer love, safety and protection.
Mr Speaker, the marks, bruises and deep wounds on these victims speak to several levels of cruelty they suffer. No one deserves to be treated in such an inhumane manner. Domestic violence is not a private matter; it is a crime and it must be treated as such. These incidents must serve as a wakeup call. We should not allow these situations to continue. Institutions that are meant to protect citizens are not to sit back and turn a blind eye on the rising cases of domestic violence. Action must be taken, not only to ensure justice for these victims but also to strengthen our system by educating more on domestic violence.
I would like to encourage every individual to speak up when they are in such situations and to always report to the rightful institutions. The silence will only allow this violence to continue. Know your rights and do not allow anyone to violate them. Every Ghanaian deserves protection, respect and justice. Do not allow fear, shame or pressure to prevent you from reporting such incidents to the institutions mandated to address these matters.
Mr Speaker, would also like to call on all media personnel, the Ghana Police Service, relevant ministries and all institutions responsible for protecting citizens to intensify their efforts in the fight against domestic violence. Continual awareness, swift intervention and strong enforcement of the law are important in protecting victims. Together we must create a society where abuse is condemned, victims are supported and justice is rightfully served.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings
Korle Klottey
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to comment on the Statement made by the Second Deputy Majority Whip on domestic violence.
This is perhaps a very opportune time to reiterate the call for Ghana to be a signatory to and ratify the African Union (AU) Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls. It is a very comprehensive legal framework that is in place to eliminate and prevent these acts of violence, not just in a conflict scenario, but also domestically.
And so, I would like to add my voice to support the maker of the Statement about the need to eliminate this scourge on our society, because violence against women is not just a gender issue, it is a societal issue. To a large extent, it appears to be normalised, and we need to reconscientise our populace to the fact that it is not normal.
One of the ways to do that is to ensure we have the necessary legal framework to put in place safeguards for women and children, specifically, and for others in general, within a domestic setting. And so, I would like to reiterate the call that Ghana ratifies and domesticates the AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls. Thank you.
Hon Haruna Iddrisu
Tamale South
Mr Speaker, let me thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement on domestic violence by Hon Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe.
Mr Speaker, it is important that in Ghana, we focus more on statistics on domestic violence. You may want to categorise it as physical abuse, threatening behaviour, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse and importantly, economic abuse. In some cultures, men are supposed to provide for their homes. So, when men leave the house without providing housekeeping money for the woman and for the children, that will constitute economic abuse and extend to psychological abuse of the woman.
Mr Speaker, we must also move away from the notion that domestic abuse is peculiarly women because there are men who are beaten at home by their spouses. But as a cultural barrier, the man is shy to go and report to the Police that he has been beaten by his wife. He does not want his own parents to know that he has been beaten by his wife. So, we need to focus more on the statistics in order to understand the incidence of domestic violence and what promotes it in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, if we focus more on domestic violence, as if the notion is that it is only women who are abused, then that is wrong. So, I want to commend the maker of the Statement and add that in our educational institutions, we have seen clear cases of teachers abusing learners and learners abusing learners, and members of a community within the school environment also abusing teachers and abusing learners. I want to commend her and also to recognise that we need to respect rights.
Once we have tolerance for respect of those fundamental human rights, we can have an improved regime. But I do not want to believe in the notion that domestic violence is peculiarly a case of women being abused. The men in Ghana must learn to take responsibility, particularly in the rural areas. In my culture, it was abominable for a man to go and tell his father or his mother that he had been beaten by his wife. It was abominable in my culture. You could not dare go and report that you have been beaten by a woman. You would be seen as a very impotent person of a man.
Mr Speaker, I commend her for the Statement. Thank you.
Hon Abla Dzifa Gomashie
Ketu South
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
I want to commend the First Deputy Majority Whip for this timely Statement on ending domestic violence and drawing attention to it for us to consider ways in which we can protect both genders. It is true that some women are alleged to be beating their husbands, but the frequency of this violence against women is on the higher side. It is the reason it has taken on this gender of female cloak.
Mr Speaker, I also want to commend Hon Zanetor for the call for the ratification of the Convention to be looked at. It probably will not be the panacea to the problem, but it will be a good step in the right direction. Domestic violence, when it happens to children, can leave scars that remain forever. And for some, it makes them timid. It makes people shy away from speaking in public. It deters people from achieving their dreams because of that childhood trauma. I am not sure if we have professionals who are dealing with the trauma that childhood abuse leaves in children. When they grow up, and they have not been able to deal with that trauma from childhood, they also perpetuate that action; they pass it on. So, it becomes a generational problem.
Mr Speaker, you would find that often, in some communities where this is predominant, and seen as the norm and all right, it is cloaked in what we call culture. But culture is not static. So even if that was the case that when we were growing up, women sat at home and did “nothing” and theirs was to wash the bowls, cook the food, clean the house, feed the children, bathe them, care for the sick, and all of that, even if that was what one was raised to think as culture, which may include beating a woman or a child, in today’s world, that is not acceptable anymore. Culture cannot remain static, so one gets away with the excuse that is how it is done in their community.
If women are presidents in other countries, Vice President in the Republic of Ghana — we have a fine example in Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, then we have no excuse for continuously torturing women in the name of it is our culture. Only yesterday or the day before, I watched on television the fact that female genital mutilation is still ongoing. Now, the trend is to take them across the country to go and have the mutilation done.
Mr Speaker, it is important that perhaps the Committee on Gender, Children, and Social Protection of which I am a Member, takes this up seriously and ensure that during this Sitting, we are able to have the Convention ratified and also advocate for stiffer punishments for those who defile children, traumatise and beat children, and abuse them mercilessly. We have seen these things on social media, and we wonder who these persons who are traumatising another human being are. Perhaps giving stiffer punishments would be more of a deterrent than just having the laws on our statute books.
Mr Speaker, I want to thank all contributors to this Statement and to urge that we all put our shoulders to the wheel and ensure that in our families, communities, Regions, and country, this sees the end this year, that we should not tolerate abuse of anybody’s rights or physical well-being being challenged. That said, Mr Speaker, I want to thank you very much for the opportunity.
Hon Felicia Adjei
Kintampo South
Thank you for the opportunity, Mr Speaker. I want to thank Hon Doyoe for making this Statement.
Mr Speaker, domestic violence destroys families. It weakens our society. A home should be a place of safety, love and care. It is not about a man returning home, and say because he gave his wife GH₵20 to prepare dinner which his wife could not do, would beat her up and do so many things to her.
Mr Speaker, for the past three years, we have seen so many things on social media. There was an occasion when a man killed his wife all because the wife refused to have sex with him. Not that alone. We can go on and on. Mr Speaker, let me go to paragraph 3 of the Statement. It says this is a horrifying incident. It is not just a tragic story of a woman; it is a painful reminder of a silent suffering.
Mr Speaker, I hope that the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) and the Ghana Police will take this and work according to the way it is supposed to be. Something happened in my Constituency two weeks ago where a five-year-old girl was suffering. We did not know what was wrong with her. We took the child to the hospital before we realised that the father has been sleeping with the five-year-old girl. The father had to kill himself.
Mr Speaker, I strongly support the maker of the Statement and I hope and pray that this august House will take domestic violence seriously, and if any male Member of Parliament is abusing his wife, we take it up. Thank you for the opportunity, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, I am guided and I need your protection. Mr Speaker, we have some men that before they request anything from their wife, they beat them. They ask, if you do not give it to them, they will beat you.
Hon Philip Fiifi Buckman
Kwesimintsim
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, we have to stand against domestic violence. It is very gory looking at the statistics in Ghana. It is an abuse of human rights. It is not just domestic violence. Many people who engage in it do not see the other person as a human being. They just maltreat people. They do whatever they want to do against another human being.
Mr Speaker, the Constitution of Ghana protects every life, protects the dignity of every human being, irrespective of their status, gender, and religious affiliation. It is not something that we just make Statement about and let it slide. We have to take serious actions against it because the victims of domestic violence suffer perpetual psychological trauma. The victims, especially children, suffer and their confidence level is brought down. We need to do something about it. We have a myriad of laws that are against the abuse of human rights. We have a myriad of laws that speak and frown on the abuse of the rights of people.
But Mr Speaker, the most appalling aspect of it is that one goes to the police station and the authorities to report and it is the community leaders who rise and say that as one has taken their father to the court, as one has taken their father to the police, who is going to take care of you. Women are not able to speak out. Children are not able to speak out.
Mr Speaker, some even die out of the distress that they go through. So, we need to rise as a nation. We need to fortify the Department of Social Welfare to be able to stand up and do the work it is supposed to do. We need to educate ourselves that violence against human beings in any form is wrong. Violence against human beings in any form is intolerable. Violence against any person anywhere is not acceptable in our nation.
So, Mr Speaker, I support the call. I support the Statement. I would call upon all of us to see our fellow human beings, whether a woman or a man, a child, as a human being who has the right to live, a human being who has the right of dignity of living. If you go to schools, you go to offices, you go to homes, various places, rights of people are abused day in and day out, and they are not able to speak. They can speak out; let us give them the opportunity to speak out.
I was thinking about where an opportunity can be created for people to report to a higher authority. Sometimes they go to DOVVSU, and they are told that “this little beating that your husband beat you, you are coming to report?”. We have to do something about it. I am speaking as a lawyer, and I know about this.
Mr Speaker, we need to do something about it, but not just Statements. We need to act. The time to act is now. Say no to domestic violence. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Hon Fred Kyei Asamoah
Offinso North
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and let me also thank the maker of the Statement, Hon Doyoe, regarding domestic violence.
Mr Speaker, many a time, when we talk about domestic violence, we tend to focus on the physical or the sexual aspect, but studies have shown that the largest percentage of domestic violence is more emotional and this emotional violence is what tends to affect kids and they take it to their schools and onward to their workplace.
So, Mr Speaker, I know the Hon Minister for Education commented on this Statement. I want to suggest that if we want to bring down domestic violence, the education has to start right from the primary schools because it is the kids that grow up to be adults and become violent toward one another. So if this education is instituted at the primary level, as we grow, we tend to move away from it. Emotional violence leads to a lot of developmental issues in our country, especially in our part of the world because our culture and the incorporation of the European or Western culture do not agree much.
If we can find a better approach to saying no to domestic violence happening within our institutions, then of course, we can take it to our workplace and homes. If a child is abused at an early age, this child is likely to also commit the same when they grow up. But if we are trained to be tolerant of one another, to appreciate the differences between each person, one could be short, one could be tall. When one is angry, one can calm down. It can bring about peace. So, this is something we, as a country, have to start working on from childhood. I believe we will be able to do that and if that is done, within the next few years, we can look at our data and we will realise that it has gone down.
So with these few words, I want to appreciate the maker of the Statement. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Mr Speaker, I want to contribute to this Statement.
I have a personal experience I am dealing with and it has to do with domestic violence. A lady I know who is about 23 years old at the University of Ghana suffered the first abuse at the hands of another woman when she was around 16 years old.
Mr Speaker, the lady lured her into believing she was the most beautiful woman and began an intimate relationship with her. And also wooed her to start smoking weed. Mr Speaker, as I speak, this lady is still smoking weed as a result of that relationship. She is at the University. I even had to get someone from Parliament, one of the ladies who works with the rehabilitation centre, to also refer her to an asylum. This is a very beautiful and smart woman. She is unable to do anything on her own without taking any substances. She is in the house because she is unable to get a hostel at the university, and she is staying with her uncle.
Mr Speaker, the worst part is that the uncle, who is a pastor, has also been finding ways of abusing this lady. So the abuse does not only come from a man to a woman. It comes from a woman to another woman or a man to another man. It could be emotional, like we have said. It could be physical, psychological or economic. But the trauma that it comes with, when care is not taken, becomes something very serious.
Mr Speaker, let me speak to some statistics here in Ghana. About 40 per cent of women, aged 15 to 49, have experienced domestic violence. This domestic violence normally will not just come from a man beating a woman. It comes from a man who even denies the woman whatever she is expected to have intimately, including sex.
Mr Speaker, about 20 per cent of men have also suffered the same abuse. And it also comes from the issue of sex and some men being beaten by women. I know some of them and they have given me signals not to mention their names— but Mr Speaker, I know them. Sometimes they wear smocks to conceal their body sizes. But we know. Beyond that, if we go to the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Constituency, 61.9 per cent of women have experienced the worst form of domestic violence. My prayer is that the Member of Parliament there takes a look at it. About 16,000 have reported cases annually of domestic violence, and this actually includes both men and women.
Mr Speaker, what can we do to stop, or at least reduce the volume of domestic violence? I think there are three major issues confronting us. One is fear. Some people may be afraid that their husbands and wives will punish them more and therefore, are unable to report. They are also afraid that it will become a stigma. They are unable to report same because the moment they report, whenever they are punished, they say, Akandoh ꬼā yaa, to wit, there goes Akandoh’s wife.These and many more are the reasons we should educate people on the trauma that domestic violence causes in people. We should educate them to understand that reporting will not bring a stigma to them, but it will bring a resolution to the problem. That whoever causes this problem must be dealt with.
Mr Speaker, I see the Majority Chief Whip trying to put pressure on me to wrap up. I would use this opportunity to say thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Hon Peter Lanchene Toobu
Wa West
Mr Speaker, I want to thank Leadership for yielding to me to conclude on this debate.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to the Statement made by Hon Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe on domestic violence. In the year 1987, the United Nations adopted the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Interestingly, in the year 1998, before Ghana could even ratify this particular convention, the Ghana Police Service, being very proactive, established what we called then the Women and Juvenile Unit, which was to deal with women and juvenile matters, and we used to call it WAJU for short.
On 7th September 2000, Ghana ratified the UN Convention Against Torture and four years later, that is in 2005, WAJU was rebranded, reinforced and revitalised into a new unit we called the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, simply put, DOVVSU.
Mr Speaker, this addresses all forms of victims of domestic violence, and it was neutral. And from 2005 to today, 21 years down the line, if the Leader is making a Statement on domestic violence in this Chamber, it tells us that we are becoming more conscious of what is happening in society. And because of the power of social media, any little thing that happens in any part of this country, in the next moment, we are quite aware. The power of social media is making it very possible for us to even have better data to appreciate what is happening in the field of domestic violence.
This Statement could not have been made at a better time than now. And the fact that she is even a woman makes it more intriguing. These days, we hardly find women clapping their hands and insulting their husbands in public. These days, we hardly find men beating their wives and dragging them in public. That is not to say that we are out of the woods yet. There is still a lot we can do, but Ghana has come a long way since 1998. I want to take the opportunity to thank the Hon Leader for making such a powerful Statement. I pray we will continue to do better and make Ghana a very hospitable place for domestic issues.
Mr Speaker, I am so grateful for the opportunity. Thank you so much.
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