Queen Mothers Demand Representation on National, Regional Houses of Chiefs

Accra: The All-Regions Queen Mothers Association has appealed to the Government to expedite processes towards the representation of queen mothers at the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs. The Group, which has been advocating equity for women, called for the implementation of the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, 2024 (Act 1121) to ensure that queen mothers were included at the decision-making level.According to Ghana News Agency, speaking to journalists at a seminar convened by the Association in Accra, Nana Otubea II, the President, said the non-representation of queen mothers at the House of Chiefs was 'unfair' and 'discriminatory'. Nana Otubea, who is also the Queen Mother of the Nkonya Traditional Council, said queen mothers were instrumental in the socio-cultural architecture of the country and their exclusion from the Houses of Chiefs reinforced the marginalisation of women at the decision-making table.While welcoming the passage of the Affirmative Action Law, she said the delays in the i mplementation of the law to ensure equity were worrying. 'The exclusion is affecting the Queen Mothers in a way that, for instance, when there is a case between a Queen Mother and a chief, and it goes to the regional level and the national level, the composition of the judicial committee is made up of only males,' Nana Otubea said. 'There is no female representation to actually tell from the female perspective of the case.'She appealed to the Government to pay allowances due queen mothers, which had not been paid in the last three quarters. Nana Otubea said the allowances supported the humanitarian works of queen mothers, who had many dependents in their respective communities.The gender equity bill was signed into law in July 2024 after nearly three decades of debate in Parliament. One of the key targets of the law is a 30 per cent quota for women in decision-making bodies, in Parliament and other state agencies in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal of achieving gender equality by 2030.Jus tice Sophia Akuffo, Former Chief Justice and Member of the Council of State, said the non-representation of women at the House of Chiefs was not right as the Constitution frowned on discrimination. The review of the 1992 Constitution was an opportunity for a review of the law to explicitly indicate the number of Queen Mothers to be included on the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs. 'Setting minimum numbers in the Constitution is one of the ways of ensuring Affirmative Action,' she said, and urged the Queen Mothers to persist in their advocacy.Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, the Deputy Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs, welcomed the concerns of the queen mothers and assured that the Ministry would take steps to ensure their inclusion. She assured that she would also make enquiries at the Ministry regarding delayed allowances.