Parliament has unanimously passed the Affirmative Action bill into law on Tuesday, July 30.
The Affirmative Action Gender Equity Bill 2024, which has been in and out of Parliament for several years.
Gender Minister, Darkoa Newman in Parliament on Tuesday, moved the motion for the passage of the bill to pass its third reading to be a law.
The bill has now been passed to become the Affirmative Action Gender Equity Act 2024.
The Affirmative Action Gender Equity Act 2024 is expected to ensure greater representation and participation of women in decision-making processes and governance across various sectors thereby improving the lives of women in the country.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin implored MPs to do more to ensure true equity and commit themselves to the new Act.
“Don’t just celebrate and don’t really put in place the vision that we have created for the country. But more importantly, I hope that members will commit themselves to the constitutional reforms. We need to do more to be able to create this free and just society we are looking for to liberate more of our women to be able to support us to be able to develop mother Ghana,” he said.
Clause one of the new Act spells out the objective of the law which is:
- To ensure the attainment of gender equity in the political, social, economic, educational and cultural spheres of the society.
- The implementation of this Act and the achievement of the targets shall be progressive and subject to evaluation in accordance with the First Schedule.
- The Government shall promote policies and programmes to redress the political, social, economic and educational gender imbalance.
