Accra: Africa Legal Aid (AFLA), an Accra-based non-governmental organisation, is establishing a Gender Network Forum in co-operation with a core group of organisations and individuals on the Continent.  The forum will provide legal assistance to women in litigation on gender -based violence; request for advisory opinions from the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and take up test cases, either directly or by assisting others to do so.

Mrs Evelyn A. Ankumah, Executive Director of AFLA, made this known in Accra at a seminar on:  "The Ghana Domestic Violence Act and Contemporary forms of  Violence against Women: Commemorating International Women's Day."

She spoke on: "A Policy Agenda for Gender Justice," at the seminar organised by AFLA in collaboration with the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice.  Mrs Ankumah said the NGO was establishing an interactive website to create online direct communication with the steering committee of the forum in a timely and cost efficient manner.

The steering committee will formulate principles and policies to expand the list of offences that constitute gender crimes.  The body will also emphasise the African perspective to be used for advocacy and lobbying initiatives at the national, regional and international levels.

Mrs Ankumah said AFLA was proposing a convention for the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity to complement the statute of the International Crime Court (ICC).  "With respect to gender, there are a number of offences that fall through the cracks because they are neither addressed in a national legislation nor in the statute of the ICC... When they are addressed they are not implemented."

Mrs Ankumah noted that gender-based crimes, which are on the rise but do not receive sufficient attention in Africa and more generally in South Africa, include gender-based violence perpetrated through the media.

"Forced marriage although recognised as a crime on paper is not implemented and the gender aspect is ignored. Contemporary forms of slavery is recognised on paper but not implemented and the gendered aspect is ignored. Gender violence in sports is hardly addressed. There is the need to define sexual violence and adopt a holistic approach to combating violence against women in all its forms."

Mrs Ankumah said there was a notable increase in numbers of women who have risen to positions of governance due to the global awareness about gender justice, citing post -conflict  Rwanda, which  boasts almost of 50 per cent of women in Parliament, the highest in any country worldwide.  She said however, women continued to be violated, targeted, scorned and disparaged, at all levels of society, and through crude and sophisticated means.

The Executive Director said AFLA sought to mainstream gender in all its activities, including the strengthening of the justice sectors in Africa and contributing the much needed African perspectives to international and gender justice.