DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE iii. Recommendations 96. The Panel recommends that the Government of Ghana: ? Adopt a binding time-frame within which to ratify the 2003 AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. ? Take additional measures to enforce the law against abusers of women's rights. ? Speed up efforts to enact the Domestic Violence Bill. To this end, organise a stakeholders' meeting or conference to discuss contentious issues around the Domestic Violence Bill, with a view to preparing it for introduction to the legislature for possible enactment. ? Increase budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Women and Childen's Affairs (MWCA) and other institutions dealing with the protection of women's rights. ? Adopt a programme within the Ministry of Justice to domesticate the CEDAW and endow it with legal force of law. ? MWCA is to initiate a policy framework to be implemented over an agreed reasonable time-frame, designed to bind the government and all political parties to adopt a 40% quota for women in all spheres of public society (Parliament, Cabinet, public service, etc.), as indicated by Ghana to the UN SecretaryGeneral. Objective 9: Promote and protect the rights of children i. Self-assessment 97. Our children are the building blocks of future societies. If they receive the proper education, development, protection and identity, and have a say in matters that affect their lives and their prospects for a future livelihood the basic provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1998 children will be important assets in the promotion and sustainability of the NEPAD vision. The prospects of a future of peace and prosperity (good governance), or of violent conflicts and poverty (bad governance), will largely depend on how children are treated today. Legislation and measures to promote and protect the rights of children 98. Ghana was the first country in the world to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in addition to being a State party to a number of related regional, 41