"In June Parliament passes amendments to the 1960 Criminal Code to provide additional protection for women and children. ...The provisions of the bill ban the practice of "customary servitude" (known as Trokosi)...The President signed the bill into law in September" (Country Reports 1999, 183; San Francisco Chronicle 10 July 1999; New People Apr. 1999).

Two non governmental organisations (NGOs) based in London, England, which campaign and work for the release and rehabilitation of the slave girls, Jubilee Campaign and International Needs, both added that in practice the law has not been enforced (17 Jan. 2000).

An official of Jubilee Campaign, an organization which "is taking action to bring change for girls trapped or threatened with Trokosi in Ghana," stated that the government of Ghana has no program to take care of the run-aways and it is NGOs that provide shelters to women who run away from the shrines. He also said that Trokosi women cannot go back to their families because the latter firmly believe that these women belong to the gods. He explained that the families are part of the problem and not the solution. He said the families believe that taking back the women would displease gods and this would bring them misfortune and so they would resell them into slavery (ibid.). The official explained that whether a woman is 15 years of age or 40 does not make any difference because they would both be treated in the same way.

The Executive Director of Needs International, a human rights organisation working for the release and rehabilitation of trokosi in Ghana, stated that although the law was passed in June 1998, no priest has been convicted (San Francisco Chronicle 17 Jan. 2000). This information is corroborated by an article in the Los Angeles Times of 10 July 1999 which states that "although the Ghanaian government outlawed Trokosi last year, threatening offenders with at least three years in jail, no one is known to have been prosecuted."

The executive director explained that, in a practical sense, the women have no recourse because their communities are still in fear of the local gods. He explained that when the women leave the shrines they are "very traumatized." International Needs provides them with shelters where they can stay for period of from three months to two years. They are given counselling and are taught marketable skills that would enable them to stand on their own feet. International Needs operates a micro-credit scheme which helps to set the women up in small businesses. It also monitors their progress until the women become self-reliant. He further stated that even though they are free to marry, their communities still view them as outcasts.

The executive director also said that age does not change the situation of a trokosi woman. He explained that trokosi women are stripped of all dignity and human rights. Whether a woman is a young or elderly, he said, she is at the mercy of the priest and when they decide to run away, the women "have nothing except the clothes on their back" (ibid.).

New People African Feature Service, an information service based in Kenya corroborates the information and adds that

although the government of Jerry Rawlings outlawed the trokosi practice in August 1998, the long arm of the law has proven to be too short in stopping this slavery. Worse still a group calling itself Afrikania Mission practises occultism and came to be known as Okomfo Damoah, and has launched a campaign to perpetuate the practice even farther (Apr. 1999).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998.1999. United States Department of State: Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

International Needs, London, U.K. 17 January 2000. Telephone interview.

Jubilee Campaign, London, U.K. 17 January 2000. Telephone interview.

San Francisco Chronicle. 10 July 1999. "Ghana Fights to End Child Slavery Practice: A Girl is Given to a Priest as 'Wife of the Gods'." http://www.ghanaforum.com/news/simmons071099.htm[Accessed: 17 Jan. 2000)

New People African Feature Service, Nairobi. April 1999. "Liberating Trokosi." http://www.peacelink.it/users/npeople/apr99/pag9april.html[Accessed: 17 Jan. 2000)