Children’s Act, 1998 (ACT 560)

This section defines a child as a person under 18 years old.

When a matter concerns a child, any court, person, institution, or other body must treat the child’s best interest as the primary consideration.

No person may discriminate against a child for the listed grounds.

A child has the right from birth to a name, to acquire a nationality, and, as far as possible, to know natural parents and extended family; no person may deprive the child of these rights, subject to Part IV, Sub-Part II.

A child has the right to live with parents and family and grow up in a caring, peaceful environment, unless a court proves one of the stated exceptions.

Parents must not deprive a child of welfare, must protect and care for the child, and must register the child’s birth.

A person must not deprive a child of reasonable provision from a parent’s estate, including where the child was born in wedlock or not.

No person may deprive a child of education, basic care, or medical treatment, including for religious reasons.

No person may deprive a child of the right to take part in sports, cultural and artistic activities, or other leisure activities.

No person may treat a disabled child in an undignified manner. A disabled child has a right to special care, education, and training where possible.

A person must not take away a capable child’s right to speak, be heard, and take part in decisions affecting the child’s well-being.

No person may subject a child to exploitative labour.

No person may force a child to be betrothed, involved in a dowry transaction, or married. The minimum age of marriage is 18 years.

A person must not subject a child to torture, cruel or degrading treatment, or harmful cultural practices.

Any person who contravenes a provision of this Sub-Part commits an offence and may be fined up to ¢5 million, imprisoned for up to one year, or both, on summary conviction.

A District Assembly must protect children’s welfare and rights, ensure agencies cooperate on children’s matters, and its Social Welfare and Community Development Department must investigate alleged violations of children’s rights.

People who know about child abuse or a child needing care and protection must report it to the Department.

This section defines when a child is treated as being in need of care and protection, including situations such as neglect, destitution, begging, exposure to immoral influences, or other moral or physical danger.

The Department must direct child-protection officers and the police to investigate suspected child abuse or need for care and protection, refer some matters to a Child Panel, and arrange removal to a place of safety when needed.

The Family Tribunal may issue care orders, but only on application by a probation officer or social welfare officer, and it cannot appoint an institution manager as an approved fit person unless the institution is approved or authorised by law.

The Family Tribunal may issue a supervision order to the Department when a probation officer or social welfare officer applies under section 19(4).

A probation officer or social welfare officer must help the child and family, take reasonable steps to prevent harm, and hold regular reviews when dealing with a care or supervision order.

A parent, guardian, or relative of the child must allow a probation officer or social welfare officer to visit the child at the family home.

A child who disobeys a Family Tribunal order and runs away may be apprehended without warrant by the police and returned to the care or supervision order placement. The Family Tribunal may also make another order to place the child elsewhere if the approved fit person will not take the child.

The Family Tribunal may discharge a care or supervision order if doing so is in the child’s best interest and someone listed in the section applies.

A child under a care order may be put up for adoption if the parent, guardian, or relative does not show interest in the child’s welfare within the period set by a Family Tribunal.

Each district must have as many Child Panels as the District Assembly considers necessary.

A Child Panel may mediate criminal and civil matters involving a child covered by the Act.

A Child Panel must be made up of specified community and district representatives in the relevant district, and the Minister appoints its members.

A Child Panel must meet regularly, keep a quorum of four, have agreements recorded by its secretary, allow interested persons to attend if invited, let affected children participate, and regulate its own procedure unless this Sub-Part says otherwise.

A Child Panel may mediate civil matters involving the child’s rights and parental duties.

A Child Panel must assist in mediation and reconciliation in minor child-related criminal matters, and it may impose a community guidance order or suggest restorative outcomes.

Family Tribunals must exist and may exercise the jurisdiction given under section 35 and other parts of the Act.

A Family Tribunal must be made up of a Chairman and between two and four other members, including a social welfare officer appointed by the Chief Justice on the Director of Social Welfare’s recommendation.

The Family Tribunal has jurisdiction over parentage, custody, access, and maintenance of children, and may exercise other powers given by this Act or any other enactment.

Family Tribunal sittings must be kept separate from other courts, and attendance is limited to listed persons or those the Tribunal authorises.

Family Tribunal proceedings should be as informal as possible and conducted by enquiry rather than adversarial procedures.

A child has rights to legal representation, to speak and give an opinion, and to privacy at a Family Tribunal.

A person must not publish information that could identify a child in a Family Tribunal matter unless the Family Tribunal permits it.

Specified people may apply to the Family Tribunal for an order confirming a child’s parentage.

A Family Tribunal must treat listed matters as evidence of parentage and may consider any other relevant matter.

The Family Tribunal may order an alleged parent to take a medical test, and it must base its order on the evidence before it.

A parent, family member, or person raising a child may apply to the Family Tribunal for custody.

A parent, family member, or caregiver may apply to a Family Tribunal for periodic access to the child.

A Family Tribunal must consider the child's best interests and several listed factors when deciding custody or access.

A person must not unlawfully remove a child from someone who has lawful custody of the child.

A parent or other legally liable person must provide a child with health, life, education, and reasonable shelter necessities.

Certain people may apply to a Family Tribunal for a child maintenance order.

A Family Tribunal must consider listed factors when making a maintenance order.

The Family Tribunal may ask a probation officer or social welfare officer to prepare a social enquiry report on maintenance, and must consider that report when making an order.

A Family Tribunal may make maintenance orders for a mother or child, and may attach the liable person’s earnings or property if maintenance is not paid.

A person who has custody of a child covered by a maintenance order is entitled to receive and administer that order. The local Family Tribunal may appoint someone else to do so if the current custodian is no longer fit.

A maintenance order ends when the child turns 18 or dies before 18, and it also lapses early if the child is gainfully employed before 18.

A Family Tribunal may continue a maintenance order after a child turns 18 if the child is in continuing education or training.

A Family Tribunal may vary or discharge a maintenance order if satisfied, on application by a parent, the child’s custodian, or another person legally liable to maintain the child.

Any person may bring an action to enforce a maintenance order, but only after 30 days from when the order is made or due.

A non-custodial parent covered by an application to the Family Tribunal has access to the child subject to the order.

This section says the Act is subject to the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971, and a maintenance-order action cannot be brought while a maintenance application is already pending in matrimonial proceedings.

Any person who unlawfully removes a child from lawful custody, fails to provide necessary support for a child when legally liable, or files a maintenance action while one is already pending in matrimonial proceedings commits an offence.

The application forms and application procedure for this Part are to be set by regulations made under the Act.

The Chief Justice may, by legislative instrument, waive some or all fees for an application under this Part.

A person over 21 with high moral character and proven integrity may be a foster-parent to a child.

A foster parent means someone who is not the child’s parent but is willing to care for and maintain the child.

The section lets a committee place a child with a foster-parent in specified cases, requires foster applications to go through listed officers or home staff, makes foster-parents responsible for the child’s maintenance, and lets the Minister make fosterage regulations.

An adoption-order application may be made to the High Court, Circuit Court, or a Family Tribunal if the applicant or child resides in the relevant jurisdiction when the application is made.

This section says who may apply for an adoption order.

An adoption order can only be made if the applicant meets the stated age, relationship, residence, care, and notification conditions, with extra limits for male applicants and joint applications.

An adoption order needs the consent of the child’s parent or guardian, but the court can excuse that consent in limited cases.

The court may require a person’s consent for an adoption order if that person has rights or obligations in relation to the child, and it may also require the spouse’s consent when the applicant is married and the sole applicant.

A court may make an adoption order only after checking the required consents, the child’s best interests, the child’s wishes where relevant, and that no improper payment or reward was involved.

The court may make an interim custody order for a child for up to two years, and it can set conditions such as supervision and travel restrictions.

The adoptive parent must tell the adopted child that the child is adopted and disclose the child’s parentage, but only if it is in the child’s best interest and the child is at least 14. Other people must not disclose the adoption to the child.

If an adoption applicant is not a citizen of Ghana, the court must make an interim order for at least two years and delay deciding the application.

A child who has already been adopted can still be the subject of a later adoption order or interim order.

After an adoption order, the birth parents’ rights and duties end, and the adopter takes over parental rights and responsibilities for custody, maintenance, and education.

If an adopter dies without a will, the adopter’s property is treated as if the adopted child were a natural child. An adopted child is not entitled to inherit from natural parents on intestacy.

This section tells how references in wills and other testamentary dispositions are to be read after an adoption order, and lets an adopted child apply to court in some cases.

Estate administrators or executors may distribute to entitled persons without liability if they had no notice of an adoption order, and entitled persons keep a right to trace property except against a good-faith purchaser.

An adopted child is treated as subject to customary law like the adopter’s natural child, but only if the adopter is subject to customary law.

A child does not have to be a Ghanaian citizen to be adopted; a qualifying adopted child becomes a Ghanaian citizen.

If an adoption order is made for a child subject to a fit person care order, that fit person care order stops applying.

The Registrar-General must keep an Adopted Children Register, court registrars must serve adoption orders on the Registrar-General within 30 days, and related records must stay private unless a court order allows disclosure.

This section prohibits giving or receiving payments or rewards linked to adoption orders or potential adoption arrangements, unless the court approves.

The adopter must notify the Department before an adopted child is taken permanently out of the country, and the notice must be given 30 days before departure.

The Department may investigate inter-country adoption applications, and a court may grant an inter-country adoption order if the child’s best interests are met.

The Rules of Court Committee may make adoption procedure rules, and those rules must cover in-camera hearings, documentary consent evidence, child representation, and social enquiry reports.

A person must not engage a child in exploitative labour.

A person must not engage a child in night work.

A child must not be admitted to employment before age 15.

A child may only be engaged in light work from age 13, and the work must not harm the child’s health or development or interfere with school attendance or benefit from schoolwork.

A person must be at least 18 years old to be engaged in hazardous work.

This Sub-Part applies to employment in both the formal and informal sector.

An employer in an industrial undertaking must keep a register of child workers and record their birth dates if known, or apparent ages if not.

This section makes it an offence for any person to breach this Sub-Part or section 93(1), with fines and possible imprisonment.

A district labour officer must investigate suspected noncompliance about child labour in the formal sector, may question any person, and must report noncompliance to the police.

The Social Services Sub-Committee, the Department, and the police have enforcement roles in the informal sector under this Sub-Part.

This Act applies to child apprentices in the informal sector.

A child may start an apprenticeship with a craftsman only if the child is at least 15 years old or has completed basic education.

A craftsman must look after an apprentice under his care by training them, providing food unless agreed otherwise, keeping them safe, and protecting their interests.

A parent, guardian, or relative must make an apprenticeship agreement with the craftsman, and the agreement must be written.

An apprentice must obey and serve the craftsman, stay in the apprenticeship unless permitted, prevent deliberate damage to the craftsman’s property, and not hide any such damage.

A craftsman must give an apprentice a release certificate when apprenticeship ends, and the release conditions must not be exploitative or contrary to the child’s best interest.

Disputes about an apprenticeship agreement must be referred to the district labour officer for the district concerned.

The child labour provisions in Sub-Part I apply to this Sub-Part.

Homes for children may be established only with the Minister’s approval, and non-governmental homes must apply for approval and licensing within six months of commencement.

The Department of a District Assembly must monitor homes within its district.

The Minister may give orders and directions to a home when doing so is expedient in the public interest.

The Minister may authorise the Department to inspect a home at any time to check whether it is kept at the required standard.

A child may be admitted to a home only in specified circumstances, and officials must help children reunite with family or become independent where reunification is not possible.

Staff of an approved home must take parental responsibility for a child in the home and protect the child’s rights; parents, guardians, or relatives must also help safeguard the child’s welfare.

The Family Tribunal may order a child’s parent, guardian, or relative to contribute to the child’s maintenance in the home.

A child in a home may be put up for adoption if that is in the child’s best interest, and the Department makes the adoption decision in consultation with the home’s management.

The Minister may make regulations for homes by legislative instrument.

Operating a home without a Minister’s licence, obstructing inspections, or failing to uphold children’s rights in a home is an offence.

A person applying to operate a day-care centre must submit the application to the Department, include required fees, and obtain a permit after inspection and compliance with the required standard.

The Department must inspect a day-care centre every month and report to the Social Services Sub-Committee. If the centre is not being managed efficiently in the best interest of the children, the permit may be suspended, and the owner or operator must fix the default within the stated time or the permit will be cancelled.

A District Assembly must issue bye-laws and guidelines for operating day-care centres in its district.

The Ministry for Social Welfare and the Ministry for Education may issue policy directives needed to operate day-care centres.

Existing day-care operators who want to keep operating must apply to the Department for a permit within six months after the Act starts.

Operating a day-care centre without a permit, continuing to operate contrary to the Part, or obstructing inspections is an offence.

The District Health Department of a District Assembly is responsible for registering births in the district, with consultation from the District Assembly department, and the District Assembly may delegate functions under this section.

If a child’s birth or baptismal certificate is missing, age can be proved by a medical officer’s certificate or a certified statutory declaration.

The Minister may make regulations by legislative instrument on listed child-welfare matters and generally to implement the Act, and regulations may set fees.

This section defines key terms used in the Act.

This section says that enactments listed in the Schedule may be amended or repealed as the Schedule specifies.

Some pre-existing regulations and Family Tribunals are kept in force after the repeal, subject to the Act.