The Director of Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Chief Spt. Owusuwaa Kyeremeh has says a man risks being charged with abuse of his partner if he refuses to give house-keeping money.
According to her, the Domestic Violence Act (732) proscribes any behavior within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or a partner likewise the denial of access to basic needs to a spouse.
Chief Spt. Owusuwaa Kyeremeh who was speaking as a panelist on Adom TV’s legal education show, “Me Wo Case Anaa” added that acts such as physical force against another person within a domestic setting, deprivation of another person of access to adequate food, water, clothing, shelter and the rest can all be classified as a domestic violence.
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“Other Acts such as sexual abuse, emotional, verbal or psychological abuses which make a person feel constantly unhappy, miserable and humiliated are all forms of domestic violence”, she noted.
Another lawyer and lecturer on the show, Gloria Ofori Boadu, also underscored the need for both men and women to desist from violent acts in the home, saying no man or woman has the right to maltreat their partner under any circumstances.
Providing further clarifications on the broad areas of the Act, Madam Boadu explained that if a person destroyed property belonging to a spouse, such persons will be engaging in economic abuse because they have deprived the affected partner of their daily bread.
Also, if a partner showed a behaviour that made life uncomfortable for the a partner including not opening the door or gate to a partner who may be returning from work or town for any reason at all, such persons are engaging in psychological abuse of their partners.
In the same vane, if a partner infects a spouse with any sexually transmitted disease such as HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis and their likes, such a partner has committed sexual abuse and would have violated the law.
On the procedures of reporting such abuses to DOVVSU, Chief Supt. Kyeremeh a person who feels violated must walk to any of the offices of DOVVSU after which an investigator will be assigned to them.
Your statement and evidence will, subsequently be taken after which the suspect will be either invited or arrested.
VIDEO (Me Wo Case Anaa ): Refusal to give your wife housekeeping money constitute abuse
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