Geneva--UN rights experts on Wednesday said Ghana had failed miserably to stamp out a centuries-old tradition in which girls are offered as slaves to local priests for a lifetime.
The system of Trokosi, prevalent among the Ewe tribe in southern Ghana, carries on to this day, a UN committee on child rights said.
"Even though legislation has been put in place in 1998 there hasn't been any significant progress," said the panel's Ethiopian chairman Benyam Mezmur, referring to a law abolishing the practice and stipulating a minimum punishment of three years in prison.
He told reporters the Ghanaian government "couldn't tell us if there has been even a single prosecution as far as the practice is concerned and of course children still continue to suffer."
The word Trokosi means "slaves of the gods" in the Ewe language.
Once given to the priest to atone for the alleged sins of her family, a girl becomes the property of the priest and is made to carry out domestic chores.
AFP
