Mrs Georgina Aberese-Ako, the Acting Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Children, has called on traditional and religious leaders to champion the rights of children to promote sustainable development. 'Our traditional and religious leaders have always been custodians of our values, customs, and spiritual guidance', Mrs Aberese-Ako told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Bolgatanga, to mark this year's National Children's Day. 'By fostering a culture that respects and promotes child rights, these leaders can help us address critical issues such as child marriage, teenage pregnancy, Female Genital Mutilation, child labor, school dropout, and the protection of children from violence and exploitation'. This year's National Children's Day is commemorated on the theme: 'Fostering child rights through cultural, religious, and traditional leadership.' According to the Acting Director although the indicators had shown that the country had made significant progress in terms of promoting child r ights and eliminating harmful practices that hindered the growth and development of children, there was still more to be done as child marriage, child labour, FGM and child exploitation continued to affect children. She stated for instance that statistics from the 2014 and 2018 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) revealed that child marriage had reduced in the Upper East Region from 39.2 per cent in 2014 to 28.7 per cent in 2018 but the rate was still far off the current national average target of 19 per cent. 'In Ghana, we have made notable progress in promoting child rights through our national laws and policies, such as the 1992 Constitution, the Children's Act, Act 560, the Child and Family Welfare Policy 2015, the Free Senior High School Policy, 2018 among others. However, the real impact of these efforts is seen when they resonate at the grassroots level, where cultural, religious, and traditional leaders hold immense influence,' she added. Mrs Aberese-Ako indicated that tradition and religion had the influence and huge followership to make a greater impact and urged them to lead advocacy to ensure that families prioritised education of their children, as well as help protect and create safe environment for children to fulfil their rights. 'Over the past years, we have witnessed remarkable collaboration between government agencies, traditional authorities, and religious institutions to address challenges facing children. Programmes aimed at reducing child labour, ending child marriage, and increasing school enrollment have yielded positive results. 'We have seen how the endorsement of child rights by traditional leaders has led to decline in harmful practices such as child marriage in several communities. Religious leaders have also used their platforms to promote education and the well-being of children. 'It is clear that when traditional and religious leaders stand up for children, the entire community listens and follows,' she added. Source: Ghana News Agency