Engendering National Public Policy Through Global Governance: An Assessment of Ghana’s Domestic Violence Legislation as a Trans-Sovereign Transnational Issue

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between global governance, global public policy and Ghana's national public policy in reference to the passing of the Domestic Violence Bill. It further assesses to what extent global governance can address the trans-sovereign transnational issue of violence against women, specifically domestic violence. The independent variables in this research project are global governance and global public policy with political environment and the “second wave” of democracy in Africa as the intervening variables and national public policy as the dependent variable. The Domestic Violence Act 2007 (Act 732) is the subject of the case study. This research project is unique in its endeavor to explore the interface between global public policy and national public policy. Violence against women has been identified by the United Nations as a pandemic affecting every country in the world, with domestic violence identified as the most insidious and malevolent form of violence. Gender is presented as a category of analysis because gender differences have been institutionalized worldwide and are a major factor in structural inequalities in world politics. Though the context of gender varies from society to society and culture to culture, gender has been established as a social relation of inequality. The level of violence against women is a major consequence of gender inequality The nation state as a unitary system of international relations is being challenged by transitional actors and an international civil society. In the latter half of the twentieth century sovereignty of the nation states has been redefined from noninterference to responsibility and accountability to an internal, as well as an external civil society. Nation states are complying with international standards and norms of governance as they ratify and domesticate global public policy into national public policy. Democratization of Africa and of Ghana since the 1992 Constitution has provided an arena for the development of a civil society and NGOs with greater autonomy from government and international donors. The United Nations four World Conferences on Women and other UN world conferences have opened space and given agency for women to participation in global governance and global public policy and has empowered women around the world and in Ghana to contribute to effecting change in national public policy. Women and men have been embolden by their participation in these world conferences, which have produced international treaties, covenants, and conferences, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action. An international civil society and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have also developed with a focus on women’s rights, gender equity, gender equality and social justice. Ghana’s public policy was examined because Ghana is an active participant in global governance having ratified a number of international instruments. Ghana has in some cases embedded global public policy in its 1992 Constitution and national public policy by setting guidelines for the domestication of ratified multilateral treaties, conventions and agreements. This research concludes that global governance and global public policy have provided instruments of governance for women and men to use as they advocate and lobby to end violence against women. Women and men in Ghana affectively used global public policy to develop the Domestic Violence Bill culminating in the Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act 732). The qualitative research method was use to conduct informant interviews on the manifestation of global governance and global public policy on the process of engendering Ghana’s public policy and addressing the issues of prevention and criminalization of violence against women, specifically domestic violence