Bernice Sam of WILDAF, Ghana
Bernice Sam is currently the National Programme Coordinator of WILDAF (Women in Law and Development) Ghana. “We want to explore how we can use CEDAW (the UN convention against discrimination of women) and other international human rights instruments to actually get our government to implement the new Domestic Violence Act.”
Bernice is one of the co-developers of the Domestic Violence Assessment Instrument (DOVA). Aim for human rights brought together a group of about 14 people from around the world, to work on a rights based tool that, once finalised, should be a useful resource in the hands of organisations that work to stop Domestic Violence.
Ghana has recently adopted a Domestic Violence Act, that aims to prevent domestic violence and protect its victims. Bernice: “The challenge after passing a piece of legislation is its implementation, it is a slow process. Being part of the development process of this tool, getting more people to know about it and hopefully being one of the organisations to test the tool, is part of the process of getting the Domestic Violence Act rolled out. This is to the larger benefit of not only our government, but to the people of Ghana, and in particular women.”
Women's rights
WILDAF is a pan-African NGO, that brings together individuals and organisations to promote a culture for the exercise and respect for women’s rights in Africa. WILDAF works at various levels. At the national and international level it contributes to analysing laws and policies from a gender perspective and lobbying for laws that contribute to women’s rights. At the local level, WILDAF provides training for legal literacy volunteers, back-up support to their educational activities and it offers legal counseling services.
The organisation has a sizeable network of organisations and individuals in over 20 countries in Africa ready to respond to urgent calls for solidarity or protest actions. “We share what we are doing right and what we are not doing right and we work together to step up the process of implementing women’s rights.”
Background
Bernice is a lawyer with a masters degree from Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington DC, USA. She has extensive experience in women's human rights work. She is a trainer and has written extensively on women's rights.
