Editor of the Newscenta Newspaper, Elvis Darko, has expressed deep concern over what he describes as the growing indiscipline and truancy among students, blaming it partly on the widespread misinterpretation of children’s rights.
Speaking on the issue, he questioned why some people consider discipline to be a violation of human rights.
According to him, “When did it become a crime to correct a child? If a child is going wayward and is being disciplined, some of you quickly say it is against the child’s human rights. How can correcting a child from going wrong be against human rights? When did we get to this?”
He argued that many people now interpret human rights to mean allowing a child to misbehave without consequences.
The Editor stressed that the law itself states that a child is not capable of making major decisions until the age of 18, which is why parents are required to sign all legal documents on their behalf.
“So are we saying that the same parent who is responsible for signing every legal document for the child has no right to correct the child when the child is going wrong?” he asked. “This is one of the annoying things happening in this country, and nobody wants to talk about it. If someone speaks on it, others quickly claim it is an abuse of human rights.”
Mr. Darko insisted that proper discipline is not abuse and that society must be able to draw a clear line between correction and violation.
“Correcting a child and ensuring the child does the right thing is not a human rights abuse,” he emphasized.
