With HIV/AIDS rates of 30.9 percent, Livingstone, one of Zambia' s main tourist areas, has the country's highest prevalence. The city borders three countries -- Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia - and, with a plethora of tourists, cross border traders and long-distance truck drivers, has become a hub of commercial sex. At one time, the city of 200,000, boasted more than 200 commercial sex workers.

Under the supervision of UN-INSTRAW’s Information Officer, the intern will focus on activities related to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace and Security,” gender and security sector reform (SSR), and gender training for security personnel. Starting date is January 2008.

Addressing women and men who participated in the launch of 16 days of activism against gender violence in Lusaka, Dr Mwanawasa said the Government was wary of the negative effects gender violence had on society and the economy.

Salma Maoulidi examines the link between abortion and women's reproductive autonomy

The first ever Safe Abortion Conference was held in late October 2007 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London bringing together about 800 people from different parts of the world working in different capacities on the issue. The conference was jointly organized by Marie Stopes International, Ipas and Abortion Rights.

Impetus behind the agenda

40years of legal abortion in the UK provided a suitable opportunity to revisit the abortion debate in view of its policy relevance to women's reproductive and sexual health. Indeed in spite of advances in reproductive health sciences and technologies about eighty women, mostly of reproductive age, die every hour from unsafe abortions in countries where it is illegal. One in three women will undergo an abortion at some stage in her life. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1 in every 16 women in sub-Saharan Africa will die from unsafe abortion as opposed to 1 in 2400 in Europe. Most deaths arise from post abortion complications, deaths that could be prevented if medical abortion were legal.

Deaths resulting from unsafe abortions account for over half of all cases of maternal mortality in most African countries. The continued toll unsafe abortion poses to women's lives worries reproductive health activists and providers. They warn should the current trend continue it will be impossible for most countries in Africa to reach goals 3 and 5 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The struggle for practitioners and activists is to eliminate unsafe abortions a feat that is complicated by the undue influence the US, backed by conservative quarters, exerts on women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in national and international policy contexts.

Globally the abortion debate is masked in moral and religious terms where the right of the unborn child is put against the right of the woman to choose to bear or abort the child. The public health dimension is rarely underlined and the millions of women who die, or are maimed from unsafe abortions hardly come under scrutiny. Rather, it is the agency of women that is questioned. The purist discourse on the right to life and the guilt of committing a cardinal sin effectively polarizes women and men from engaging with the issue from a political lens where abortion is not only seen to affect some 'immoral' women but is an issue for all women.

The realities on the ground

Abortion politics hold women's reproductive capacity ransom at huge costs to their individual freedom and health. As the Safe Abortion Conference was closing in London, the Morogoro Resident Magistrates Court passed a prison sentence to a 21 year old woman in Tanzania, Faima Hassan, for aborting an eight month old fetus. This case is not a rare occurrence. In recent times abortion has become topical and a major topic for women bashing by parliamentarians in the national legislature. Leading this bashing is the President of Tanzania who, symbolically on the Day of the African Child on June 16, 2007, is reported by the Daily News to have called all women, who opt for an abortion, murderers, a view echoed by the deputy Minister for Health, Hon. Ayisha Kigoda during several Parliamentary sessions. Surely such utterances can be construed to reflect the official position towards women's right to make decisions over their bodies, a position that is in direct conflict to article 14(2) (c) of the Maputo Protocol that recognized a right to medical abortion which Tanzania signed and ratified!

Regrettably it is mostly poor women who cannot afford safe abortion services that will encounter legal and medical problems mainly because they lack resources to benefit from available abortion options that are legal and safe. The bottom line is that back street abortions provide women with an essential service in a context where birth control is not widely and regularly available or where the sexual relationship is unequal and often coerced. Denouncing those who perform illegal abortions could put their lives at risk or make them targets of public and moral recrimination. Faima's double tragedy of carrying a fetus almost to term and being prosecuted is a near impossibility for a woman who is well to do. They can either fly to destinations like South Africa where abortion is available on demand; or solicit the aide of friends in the medical establishment where, in spite of the ban, abortion services continue to be available for a fee.

Significantly the ban on abortion denies women the ability to assert their reproductive autonomy. Prof. Fred Sai, an adviser to the Ghanaian President and a respected personality in women's health in Africa, argues that it is unacceptable that women cannot have a choice in such a personal matter.

What informs my interest in the debate?

While at high school I watched a form two student fight death after a back street abortion. She stank after becoming septic and was delirious. Her state paralyzed anyone from seeking medical attention because either way it spelt trouble incriminating not only the girl but also others who supposedly harboured her: Pregnancy continues to disqualify female students, in most African countries, from enjoying their right to an education. Even if the procedure was successful, it is sufficient grounds to expel a girl from school. In this instance, however, taking her to medical authorities for attention would incriminate her for partaking in a criminal act. In the end, her colleagues smuggled out of the school to undergo another clandestine intervention to save her life.

Alas this is not the only abortion incident I would encounter. During my undergrad years at the University of Dar es Salaam, a dorm mate died after attempting to end a pregnancy her boyfriend refused to acknowledge. She swallowed a handful of pills. Her family found her and sought medical attention but the process attracted delays such that by the time doctors attended to her she was already cold. Also in the course of my work I have met young and older couples pushed by economic considerations to end unintended pregnancies: In view of the harsh economic realities they cannot afford another child since, in a cost sharing set up, the question is not just about an extra mouth to feed but also about an extra body to shelter, dress, treat and to educate. Women also end a pregnancy because it was forced; or there is a bigger threat militating against having the baby such as marital discordance or a health risk like seropositivity. Rarely is the intent to pursue a hobby of killing fetuses or as alternative a FP method.

Origins of the prohibition

Abortion is challenged on a number of grounds chief being preserving the sanctity of (all forms of) life. Religious scriptures are often cited to challenge the practice. In addition to religious arguments human rights arguments are deployed to delegitimize any moral basis to the practice, similar to those employed to oppose the death penalty. Yet abortion laws, per se, are not indigenous to local cultures and prior to their adoption there existed practices in local communities to get rid of unwanted fetuses or children.

The prohibition against abortion came as a result of British laws and missionary interventions in African colonies. The context such a law came to be is underemphasized. Prof. Said explains that when abortion was criminalized in Victorian England it was to protect women from "barber surgeons" whom, women frequented to end unintended pregnancies. Abortion services at that period were not safe and more women died undergoing abortions than during child birth, requiring urgent measures to safeguard women lives and health.

Lord Steel, the Architect of the UK 1967 Abortion Act notes the tremendous advances in the sciences since the passage of the Act necessitating a fresh look at the 1967 Act which working within the confines of possibilities of science at the time mainly confined it self to surgical abortions. But today medical technology is so advanced women can induce abortions at home by taking a pill requiring minimal medical intervention as was the case four decades ago.

How then is it that while imperialist forces that abortion law have adapted to the progress made in reproductive technologies the law is fervently retained in most former colonies? Surely abortion legislation reflecting an antiquated approach to safeguarding women's health and lives, can only be understood as a remnant of the imperialist project in Africa, a project increasingly manifested through the undue control of women via criminal and personal laws while all else on which livelihood depends is liberalized.

What is implicit in the anti-abortion debate?

All types of women have abortions and they do so for various reasons. Few women make the decision to have an abortion lightly (or while emotionally possessed) as is suggested by those who question women's state of mind and motives for wanting an abortion. In most cases an abortion is a desperate act to control one's fertility where that ability to do so has been denied. And while undue attention is on the woman and her 'immoral' and 'criminal' rarely is the behaviour of men who impregnate women against their will, either by force or deceit, brought under scrutiny.

Is the ban on abortion about the sanctity of life or about patriarchy and the obsession to control women via the womb? Indeed the most effective way to control women has historically been via her reproductive function. Also some arguments against abortion express conservative notions about the sexual hierarchy. In many ways family planning technologies revolutionized power in the sexual relationship. Anti choice arguments imply that a woman cannot make decisions over her own person and body and further the assumption that women are not rational beings and impliedly cannot make decisions over their own bodies let alone over others.

Possibly the high abortion death rates are tolerated because women are deemed replaceable should they die; become maimed; or rendered infertile as a result of unsafe abortion. In contrast the same jurisdictions place few prohibitions on men's sexual and reproductive practices (or the consequences thereof) as are placed on women. While the law and pro-life opinion compel the woman to have the child, few laws oblige a father to look after issues fathered; the responsibility largely rests with the mother. Presently the official maintenance rate in Tanzania is 100 shillings (about 8 cents US) nor is there a mechanism to enforce maintenance awards. A mother knows what carrying a pregnancy to term will mean. Yet, those opposing women's right to choose are not willing to offer women the institutional support to raise an unintended child; or to advocate the necessary reforms that would put women in a more egalitarian footing in the sexual and reproductive relationship.

The abortion debate reflects a desire to perpetuate gender dominance at one level and power inequalities in development prescriptions on the other. The control of poor women's reproduction features prominently in development strategies but no where is the intent as contentious as in the case of abortion. Indeed long before the Gag Rule abortion was high in the US development agenda leading the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to have an abortion branch. A few years later the priorities have changed impacting significantly on local reproductive health politics where the services are most crucial to reduce unnecessary deaths.

Medical dimensions of the debate

In view of the advances in reproductive heath technologies abortion deaths should be history in the 21st century not a public health issue. Sadly this is far from the reality such that women are forced to adopt extreme measures to get rid of pregnancies they had not planned. This may involve taking toxic potions and drugs; inserting crude objects in the uterus; and subjecting themselves to falls or blows to induce abortion.

Surely, confining the abortion debate to the 'appropriateness' of ending the life of an unborn child fails to take into account the circumstances in which the child came to be.
WHO estimates that one in every three pregnancies is unintended. Questions should therefore be posed about how women became pregnant and not why they want to rid themselves of a pregnancy they do not want.

There is a strong link between abortion and women's reproductive autonomy. Many women have sex in circumstances that are equal to forced sex or rape putting her at risk of becoming pregnant and becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases. It is, therefore, important to vigorously link the public health aspects in the ongoing debate. Likewise, advocacy initiatives should emphasize facts with regards conceptions. Indeed about a quarter of all conceptions (about 240 million annually) will lead to early pregnancy wastage a figure twice higher than that pertaining to induced abortions estimated at 42 million, only 20 million of which are illegal. Perhaps such truths will mitigate residues of ambivalence abortion evokes especially among conscientious women and men.

Opportunities for decriminalization

Increasingly abortion is not solely seen as a feminist agenda but as an agenda that is embraced by a wider spectrum of actors from the reproductive health sector and medical professionals. For instance the medical community in India made safe abortion a health agenda and actively lobbied the government under the banner 'Safe abortion saves lives'. While doctors elsewhere are spearheading safe abortion, one wonders why the medical community in Tanzania and in other Africa countries remains silent lest the status quo benefits individual practice.

Decriminalization is easier when safe abortion is part of national population or health policies as is the case in India and China. Even so in societies where women feel compelled to produce male heirs there is a risk of abuse to facilitate sex selection. In any case safe abortion is more cost effective since more money is spent treating complications arising from illegal and unsafe abortions. In a context where health services are severely constrained and fewer allocations in the health budget are made to reproductive health services, liberalizing medical abortion and post abortion services may be the logical policy intervention.

Some activists believe the Maputo Protocol has a potential to advance African women's sexual and reproductive rights via test in line with regional and international instruments. Alas, courts on the continent, continue fail women, willingly preserving the status quo while stifling any attempt towards a progressive appreciation of women's human rights. Moreover although new judicial regimes like the East African Court present a huge potential in furthering existing human rights interpretation, their mandate is confined to issuing opinions effectively limiting their influence in obliging states to reform. Surely this is an area for future advocacy.

Is there strong policy commitment to safe abortion?

Presently there is a deep realization within the activist community that legalizing abortion may not be enough. Abortion activists in the US express concern with the April 2007 Supreme Court decision which though on later term is interpreted as dispensing with the requirement to protect women's health asserted in the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade that explicitly recognized a woman's right to choose.

Thus while abortion remains legal in the US conservative forces have used sophisticated means to ensure that a woman's right to choose is thwarted by raising legal challenges and placing procedural restrictions, at the state level, all designed to limit a woman's ability to access abortion on demand e.g. mandatory waiting periods. Moreover as fewer clinics in the US provide the services, women are forced to go further distances, at times out of state, to obtain an abortion placing undue economic and social burdens.

The Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Bert Koenders, offered an optimistic assessment of donor practice with regard development assistance in the area of maternal health including reducing deaths from unsafe abortions. The assertion while laudable must be evaluated against current practice with regard development funding where increasing partnership with governments to the exclusion of civil society organizations may limit meaningful interventions in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Moreover greater activism in countries where abortion is not legal may further restrict the mandate of civil society organizations supposedly for engaging in illegal activities.

The conference came to a realization that civil society organizations and health practitioners in Africa can agitate for the politicization of the abortion issue e.g. as part of Peer Review Mechanism to monitor progress of national and regional instruments. Sadly there remains in Africa a reluctance to approach abortion as a policy issue it is therefore not surprising that maternal health dominates different forums on women's health instead of reproductive health, the latter recognizing more forthrightly the biological role women play in conception but also her agency in the sexual relationship.

Towards meeting key policy commitments on sexual and reproductive health rights.

WHO and ICPD define health and wellbeing to include the right to decide one's fertility; and to enjoy a satisfying sexual life free from violence and risk of disease. The MDGs reiterate the centrality of maternal and reproductive health and rights to the development agenda. Health Ministers acknowledge the link between unsafe abortion and maternal deaths and the African Union (AU) has sought to address this aspect in article 14 of the Maputo Protocol and Plan of Action.

How can the legal framework and reproductive health services locally reflect the accepted global standard? Undoubtedly the ideal is a situation where women don't have to resort to abortion as a way to get rid of unwanted pregnancies; or to regulate births. This implies empowering women to exercise sexual and reproductive choices. Clearly it makes no sense denying a service that is medically and economically efficient. Rather than moralizing on the issue policy makers ought to engage more effectively with evidence gathered by different actors including the WHO to guide policy interventions with respect to curbing maternal deaths.

* Salma Maoulidi is an Activist/Executive Director of the Sahiba Sisters Foundation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Miriam Madziwa writes that each time the Zimbabwe dollar tumbles, women's survival chances take a corresponding knock, as it means more sexual favours to seal deals with men, who by virtue of their jobs or connections are able to make or break women's survival attempts

With her unkempt hair tucked into a woolen hat, a faded T-shirt, skirt and a pair of torn canvas shoes, Nokhuthula Tshuma* does not fit the stereotypical profile of a commercial sex worker. As an informal trader earning a living selling agricultural produce from rural areas to urban residents, it is difficult to link her to sex work and its inherent dangers.

Yet, the mother of three, like thousands of impoverished Zimbabwean women struggling to feed, clothe and educate their children in a hyperinflationary environment, is at great risk of infection. Each time they embark on a business trip, the women expose themselves to vulnerable situations.

As the Zimbabwean economy crumbles, shortages of basic goods have presented numerous opportunities for enterprising women to make money. The same shortages of goods and essential services such as transport coupled with endemic corruption mean the women traders have to operate according to business rules defined by men.

One such rule is to offer a “favour,” really a bribe, to secure scarce commodities and free passage by police officers. For these impoverished and desperate women, the bribes take the form of offering "a little bit extra" to male service providers and suppliers in order to remain in business. These extra favours are invariably sexual.

For the cash-strapped women, sex offers an easy and cheap, albeit risky, means of supporting their families. In return, they are able to secure scarce goods as well as discounts on transport and accommodation and their businesses flourish.

A few experiences gleaned from a cross section of informal Zimbabwean women traders illustrate the magnitude of the dilemma these women contend with in trying to meet economic needs and safeguarding their health.

Tshuma lives in the southern half of Zimbabwe in the coal-mining town of Hwange. Twice a month, she makes a 400 kilometer round trip to Lusulu in Binga district. Lusulu is a thriving agricultural area where Tshuma barters basic goods such as soap, sugar and salt, which have disappeared from shop shelves, with maize. Normally she is away from home for a week.

If she were to pay for all her transport, food and accommodation expenses when she is away from home, she would make very little profit. So to boost her profit margins, she pays using what is known as "bottom currency," to pay off bus crews to secure seats on overcrowded buses, truck drivers to ferry bags of maize back to Hwange, and lodge owners to discount her accommodation costs.

Beauty Phiri started selling dried fish six months ago soon after government's clampdown on prices saw butchers' refrigerators going empty. An astute entrepreneur, Phiri saw a viable business opportunity selling dried fish to protein-starved Bulawayo residents. She sources her fish fresh from the Zambezi River in Binga from both Zimbabwean and Zambian fishermen.

She points out that it did not take her long to figure out that she had to sleep with the fishermen for her to get in order to meet her requirements quickly. Women fishmongers openly admit that fishermen prefer to deal with "generous women."

On the extreme end of the age scale are poor girl pupils in remote rural schools, such as Lusulu High School. Pupils walk an average of 20 kilometers to get to school from their homes, so many become “bush borders.” Bush boarding is an informal set-up where pupils build their own huts and have to find their own food and other basic requirements.

Many pupils come from poor families who are unable to send regular supplies of cash and food to the borders. In desperation, female students resort to illicit affairs with teachers, police officers and other rich villagers. Statistics from Lusulu indicate that annually, an average of 50 female students drop out of school after falling pregnant.

Thanks to HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns, most women who find themselves in such situations are aware of the inherent dangers of their survival tactics. The women know that HIV and AIDS have reduced the life expectancy of women in the country to 34 years, and that the pandemic is decimating families and drastically reducing mortality rates.

The sad reality though, is that the poverty forces these women to engage in risky behaviour in order to survive anyways. Some women still are not making the connection between granting sexual favours and the increased risk of infection.

Another worrying fact is that when women travel a lot, their partners are likely to turn to mistresses called “small houses” in Zimbabwe, during their absence. These "small house" occupants in turn often have numerous partners in an attempt to balance their ever-increasing monthly expenses with their incomes.

These bleak scenarios aptly portray how Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, characterised by hyperinflation now at almost 15 000 percent, is fuelling the vulnerability of women to HIV infection and erasing the gains of concerted HIV and AIDS awareness and behaviour change campaigns. The black market, a phenomenon triggered by acute shortages of basic goods and services, is forcing desperate women to forget lessons learnt from these campaigns.

The instinct to meet basic needs has erased survival skills painstakingly acquired over the years. Each time the Zimbabwe dollar tumbles, women's survival chances take a corresponding knock, as it means more sexual favours to seal deals with men, who by virtue of their jobs or connections are able to make or break women's survival attempts.
Even more disheartening is the realisation that efforts to break the vicious circle will come to nought until the economic free fall stops.

* Not her really name

* Miriam Madziwa is a freelance journalist based in Zimbabwe

* This article is part of a series produced by the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service for the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Elizabeth Mataka says the needs and the rights of women need to move from the empty discussions in the margins and given the necessary resources, attention and action the urgency requires

In the days leading up to the International Day Against Violence Against Women I have been reflecting on exactly what ‘violence’ in the violence against women means. The more I thought about the subject, the more I realized that violence now has many shapes and colours, it has transcended the violence of physical, sexual and psychological assault, touched down on political and economic harm and now moved into the space of complicity by silence.

We need not look further than the recent epidemiological data released this week by UNAIDS, it illustrates that approximately 60% of HIV infected adults in sub-Saharan Africa are women. This information, I am aware, is not new – women in our region have for many years been what has been coined ‘the face of the epidemic’ - but what this new data has done is brought home the realization that nothing, nothing has changed for women.

The HIV estimates in Africa have shown a leveling off and in some instances, a decline and this is hopeful news. But the situation of women has not changed.
And so I ask, when it comes to women, why are we so slow to act?
With statistics such as these, we are facing a critical emergency, we are rapidly moving towards an Africa without women. Allowing this to happen is violence against women. You may not conduct a physical assault, but being silent is being complicit and non-action is now a violent act.

I have made a personal stand not to be complicit or be a silent aid to any form of violence against women. Strengthening the rights of women and girls is a priority area for me during my tenure as the UN Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa. I have decided to move beyond the lip service of discussions on the empowerment of women and work closely with governments and legal groups, lobbying them, to make sure that legislation and policy is reformed to actually support the empowerment of women.

However, as we know, we can change policy and legislation, but nothing will change unless we change our cultural practices and our personal attitudes that support this violence against women.

For example, am I wrong to say that in some of our cultures here in Africa, a well brought up daughter is one who is submissive and obedient? Doesn’t this well mannered daughter reflect well on her family? But doesn’t this very same education in submissiveness and obedience create a dependency, which in turn disempowers our daughters?

Another example, am I wrong in saying that some of our cultures here in Africa condemn divorce; and our societies are quick to denounce marriage separation, even a marriage with high risk and abuse? Evidence shows that a massive number of new infections in women here occur in the context of marriage or long term relationships. With this kind of information, it is a violent act to hide behind ‘culture’ to justify leading our women to an early grave.

This is why in my tenure as the UN Special Envoy on AIDS, I will talk publicly and honestly about the cultural practices that are harmful to women. We need to break the silence on this. We need to ask ourselves about the kind of legacy we will leave for our daughters and granddaughters, unless we stand-up to some of these harmful practices, all they will inherit is a certain death before they have actually lived.

Again I ask, when it comes to women, why are we so slow to act?

It is still astounding that over 25 years into the HIV epidemic, and in the context of sexual relations, for the most part a woman is still made dependent on her male sexual partner to protect herself. The statistics show that time has run out, women need products, now, that they can control – without negotiation and with discretion - to protect themselves against HIV. More political commitment and resources need to go to the research agenda around women controlled HIV prevention products, like microbicides.

The needs and the rights of women need to move from the empty discussions in the margins and given the necessary resources, attention and action the urgency requires. However, absolutely nothing will change for women unless men and boys are involved and educated towards an understanding of equality – this will help them understand, better, the advantages of true gender equality.

Today, the International Day Against Violence Against Women and the first day of the 16 days of activism against gender violence, I ask that non-action is included as a definition of violence. It is our collective responsibility to take a stand against violence against women, if we remain silent, we become complicit, we become an obstacle.

I conclude by asking again, when it comes to women, why are we so slow to act?

* Elizabeth Mataka is the UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The journey just got tougher for civil society activists who have been spearheading efforts to ensure that Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments are legally bound to achieve gender equality, writes Pamela Mhlanga

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, due to have been adopted by Heads of State at their meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in August, has been deferred until the next annual summit to be held in South Africa in mid-2008. The latest draft of the Protocol has had huge chunks removed and concrete commitments softened.

Rising to the challenge, during 16 Days of Activism these activists will be picking up the pace in a campaign to see that a draft Protocol on Gender and Development has the needed commitment and detail necessary to make it a meaningful document in promoting true equality.

SADC is arguably one of the few regions that have done some groundbreaking policy work to institutionalise gender equality. Aside from adoption of a Declaration on Gender and Development in 1997 and an Addendum to address violence against women and children in 1998, all 14 SADC states have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

This positive gender equality policy scenario in SADC should lay the basis for a smooth transition from having non-binding SADC instruments to achieve gender equality, such as the 1997 Declaration, to a legally binding one, right? Wrong, as the most recent SADC Heads of State Summit demonstrated.

The baby was almost thrown out with the bath water, when the draft Protocol failed to be adopted, despite having been approved by SADC Gender Ministers, as well as Justice Ministers, the latter having reviewed it in an extraordinary meeting just weeks prior to the August Summit.

The essence of the proposed SADC Gender Protocol is to consolidate all the various commitments made by SADC governments to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in an “omnibus” document. This document will legally bind member states, and provide a framework with time bound targets, for assessing progress and evaluating their performance.

If adopted it will be the first document of its kind in any sub-region. Technically, a lot of work went into the preparation of the pre-Summit draft, including input by an intergovernmental and civil society Task Force set up by the SADC Secretariat under the leadership of the SADC Gender Unit, as well as portfolio SADC Ministers.

Members of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance, a coalition of 16 organisations working on women’s empowerment at national and regional levels, also made expert input into the drafts. Coordinated by Gender Links, this Alliance includes a wide range of organisations from across the region, such as the Botswana Congress of NGOs (BOCONGO), the Federation of African Media Women (FAMW) – SADC, Gender and Media Southern Africa Network (GEMSA), Malawi Council of Churches, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and Women in Law in Southern Africa (WLSA).

What is worrying is that the revised draft that came out of the Summit is substantially different from the pre-Summit draft in many respects. Some of the core issues that will, if effectively tackled, result in considerable positive impact on (currently unequal) gender relations and women’s full equality have either been removed, or modified.

This significantly compromises the potential effectiveness of the proposed Protocol, and, interestingly, even limiting the potential to achieve other commitments already made by SADC governments. For example, the text of the new draft creates loopholes to the adherence by governments to time bound targets, in line with commitments already made in global development blue prints such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Words like “ensure” are changed to “endeavour”.

Examples of gaps in the new SADC Gender Protocol draft include excluding reference to groups that suffer marginalisation or exclusion and limiting constitutional review processes that will eradicate discrimination and marginalisation of women. The new draft is missing entire sections from areas such as health, HIV and AIDS, education and institutional arrangements.

Some sections, such as HIV and AIDS are cross-referenced with documents that are either not legally binding such as the Maseru Declaration on HIV and AIDS or do not take into consideration gender issues, such as the SADC Protocol on Education and Training.

The commitment to ensuring that where there is a contradiction between customary law and Constitutional provisions for gender equality the latter takes precedence have been removed. This leaves wide open the dual legal system that daily undermines the rights of women in the region, especially poor women in rural areas.

In preparation for the next SADC Heads of State Summit, the Gender Protocol Alliance, currently coordinated by Gender Links, is developing a position paper motivating for a redrafting of the text of the Protocol in order that it a meaningful document that is grounded in women’s rights, and in line also with already existing SADC gender equality commitments.

The Alliance met in Johannesburg on 9 November 2007 to review the status of the Gender Protocol adoption process. The meeting focused on action that civil society can take to facilitate an essentially government process that seems to have been drawn back sharply.

Alliance members realise that the adoption of the Protocol requires greater political engagement, particularly at national level, to influence the spheres of power with responsibility for committing governments to act. Further, engaging with different spheres of influence at national and regional level is priority on the agenda, including Ministers of Gender, Justice, and Foreign Affairs, parliamentarians, seniour government officials, and other strategic activists.

At the core of action by gender activists is also to mobilise from the grassroots, so that there is popular support and a critical mass that recognises the value of the Protocol and sees its adoption and implementation as a critical factor in achieving equality and positive transformation for all. Thus, engaging potentially powerful sectors such as faith based organisations, local government actors, and others with their fingers on the pulse of community action and change will make significant inroads in ensuring multi-layered support.

The sum total of these proposed actions should turn the tide towards adoption of a SADC Gender Protocol that we can all identify and work with to raise the bar in addressing women’s rights in this region. Once ending gender violence becomes a legal obligation, maybe then our countries and communities will be safer places for everyone.

* Pamela Mhlanga is the Deputy Director of Gender Links.

* This article is part of a series produced by the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service for the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Aboubacry Mbodji proposes a gender approach in regard to violence, labour rights and discriminations against women in Senegalese working environment.

In the Senegal, issues relating to violence, to right to work and to discriminations against women in working environment, cannot be understood without a detailed analysis of multi-secular historical context, which have founded the economic, social and political status of women yesterday and today. It is not of our intention to exhaust a so vast subject in the economy of a presentation. Our purpose will especially try hard to ask fundamental questions by hoping that a more deepened study will be able to be carried out to enable a more exhaustive analysis of the subject.

What is the role of the traditional institutions and religious practices in the promotion of the right of the woman to work? By traditional institutions, it is not only necessary to hear the formal institutions, but also modes of organizations or the forms of practices codified by tradition and by religion. The influence of tradition and religion on the life of the individuals appears to be obvious, but this one hides the worst forms of discrimination against women on the one hand, and obstacles in promotion and protection of their right to work on the other hand.

What are the traditional institutions and the religious practices with harmful effects on the right of women to work? What are the worst forms of discrimination which follow from it? Are there good recommendable practices? How to change status quo? What have to be the actors or the institutions of such change? From which actions and strategies can we lead such a desired social change?

In fact these are the fundamental questions in which our presentation will try to bring answers.

I. Traditional institutions or customary practices

In spite of the importance of its contribution and its role in the traditional society, the position of the Senegalese woman seems to challenge yesterday as today the human dignity, as much discriminations are numerous, structural as inhuman. Traditional institutions and customary practices seem to have sealed the position of the woman as insignificant citizen, or anyway, been born to be dominated by the man.

1.1. The matriarchal system

Following the example of the African traditional societies, the Senegalese society seems at first glance to idealize the woman with regard to its position, with its social status, with its instructive and economic role. She is honoured and seems to occupy an important place in the matriarchal system. However, this situation following from the functioning of the matriarchal system of the society, which would have been able to lay the foundations of an egalitarian and no-discriminating society, hides to a certain extent the influence of the traditional institutions and the customary practices with tendency to relegate the woman in the background in the distribution of its economic, social and political functions.

If the political institution of matriarchy put the woman in a privileged position which could enable her to play entirely her economic, social and political role within the society, one can realize obviously with the analysis of this system that this role was generally figurative: it was not indeed a real exercise of power. Certainly, there were exceptions, particularly in certain ethnic groups of the Senegalese society (to Wolof, Fulani, Soninke, Bambara, Diola, etc), where one noted the existence of queens who occupied at the same time economic, social and political functions (example: Ndete Yalla Mbodj who was queen of the Walo until 1853, Alin Sitoye Diatta, queen of Kabrousse who was deported of her natal Casamance in Gabon by the French colonists).

Apart from these rare exceptions, the status of the woman in the Senegalese traditional society in comparison with the possession and in the transmission of power seldom gave her possibility to achieve high political functions to the men.

1.2. Patriarchal system

As social practice, the custom appears in all respects in the Senegalese traditional society as the symbol of the submission of the woman to the man. It forces the woman to dedicate an almost complete submission to the man: spouse, father or brother. This structural presentation profoundly anchored in tradition and customs constitutes the main discriminating factor for the access of the woman to the public and political sphere. If this situation is based on a patriarchal organization of the family and the society, it is necessary to emphasize that the passage of matriarchy in patriarchy was historically long and laboured.

Reasons advanced in the course of history are numerous, even if the motherhood (matrilinéarité) could be considered to be the consequence of motherhood, owing to « mystery of conception » which engenders the unification of the child with its mother and, by way of consequence, to the maternal family, due to the power of life which it detains and from which the man is excluded by ignorance of his role in the process of delivery. This situation is transformed in fatherhood (patrilinéarité) when at least two elements converge:

* the realization of the role of the father in the conception of the child and the progressive transformation of the economy of survival into a trader economy, requiring the knowledge of its descendant in order to enable the transmission of treasures collected which only man has found it, at a given time, loaded

* The recognition of the role of the mother which has moved it away during a moment of the conception and tasks of reproduction.

This postulate of economist origin of the patriarchy which consecrated the economic, social and political domination of the woman seems to be of a key importance. It has enable to understand that the economic and conditions to reach it could be a way to drive to social change.

1.3. The institution of polygamy

From all institutions or traditional practices, polygamy appears to be the one which is in the centre of debates, in the fact that it is holder of numerous forms of violation of the rights of the woman. It draws its legitimacy at the same time in the custom and in religion, particularly Islamic. The practices of the lévirat (after the death of the husband, the woman must marry a member of the family of the deceased, most often one of the brothers of the husband), or of the sororat (practice of remarriage of a widower with the sister of his spouse, particularly when this late has small children), are common practices in the Senegalese society which violate systematically rights and fundamental freedom of the woman.

1.4. Slave state practices and their after-effects

The institution of slavery was and is another pain and social tragedy in the African countries. Even if it has been eradicated in all ethnic groups of the Senegalese society, it still remains some after-effects which constitute the worst social forms of discrimination in a way to keep the woman in a situation of extreme domination as long as she will exist.

1.5. The harmful traditional practices violating the woman dignity

In the Senegalese yesteryear society as that of today, there are several types of harmful practices such as female genital mutilations. These have a negative effect on the health of the mother and the child. The most frequent female genital mutilations in certain ethnic groups of the Senegalese society such as Fulani, Soninké, Bambara and Diola are the following:

* the incision or "Sunna" according to the Muslim religion which seems to leave undamaged the female sexual organs and that consists of taking away a small end of the clitoris or in proceeding to the injection or boring of the organ

* the removal which consists of severing the hood of the clitoris or in proceeding to the excision of a part or the half of the small lips of the organ

* The infibulation which consists of cutting entirely the small lips, the clitoris and sewing the big lips together by leaving only a small orifice which allows the passage of urines and menstrual flux.

In the Senegal, the realisations of inquiries on these practices reveal that excision represents 85 % of female genital mutilations, for reasons related to nutritional taboos and to force-feeding.

1.6. The worst forms of discrimination and their consequences on woman’s rights

From the medical point of view, traditional practices such as excision and infibulation cause, in short, medium and long-term, serious consequences to the physical and mental health of the woman. On physical and psychological plan, the state of shock of the little girl, owed to bleeding but also to high-pitched pain, to the suffering and to the fright, can cause disturbances of behaviour which later lead to the lack of trust regarding the others, to neuroses or even of psychoses according to the experts of the Worldwide Health Organization (WHO).

Immediate physical complications (bleeding, infections, tetanus, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, death), legions of the neighbouring organs (urethra, vagina, lapsed or rectum) can happen immediately after operation. In the long term, other complications can also happen: repeated bleedings, blockage and chronic infection of the urinary and genital ways, forming of cheloids, cysts, neurinomes and vésico-vaginal fistulas.

Such complications cause painful sexual intercourses, menstrual frequent riot as the dysménorrhée. They can also lead to incontinence and to sterility of the woman by putting her in a critical social situation (Report of the WHO, 1994). Problems related to pregnancy and to delivery are also numerous: complications of delivery plunged or extended which are dangerous for the life of the mother and the child who can suffer from neonatal cerebral legions.

1.7. Ideological foundations of harmful traditional practices

In the Senegalese society, families justify these dreadful practices by the necessity to find a husband to the little girl. In fact it is to transform her according to the desire of the men: cutting the organs of pleasure of the little girl to attenuate her sexual appetite or force-feed her to make a «soft mattress» for the future husband. The pinches which accompany force-feeding participate in a process of torment which must lead these little girls to become crushed women, and therefore, subjected to the men.

Female genital mutilations are an integrant part of the patriarchal system through which, in a relationship of power, the men appropriate and control the women. They are the form the most finished by the management of sexuality by the men in the African and Senegalese society, in particular.

II. Institutions or religious practices

Between institutions or religious practices and those considered as traditional, the border is not always airtight, considering the long history of interlocking or coexistence of both universes. Very often, it is allocated in the religion of the practices which are not it responsibility, and vice versa: religious practices are though and are lived as emanating from custom or traditions. This amalgam is source of a lot of confusions in daily practice. This poses problems, seen from the angle of the freedom of choice and the respect of rules. In addition to the numerous and various interpretations or even contradictory of the religious texts, particularly the Koran.

Here, the debates have been always the contradictory, or even enthralled. Even if one has often recalled the progressive nature of the Koran, hadiths and sharia in terms of respect or promotion of the rights of the woman, as a rule, practices related to the laws of the family in Muslim religion, both institutions of polygamy and inheritance are those which pose most problems.

III. How to change the status quo?

On one hand the modernization, the universality of human rights on the other hand, are changing in a positively and in a substantial way but yet in a non-radical manner the women position. Reforms following from political mutations and from the democratization of the Senegalese society however face up ideological, cultural and religious problems. The statuses of the family appropriate to traditions and to religions remain in a great extent the cornerstone of the resistance to change.

3.1. Right at work and discriminations against women in Senegalese environment

How to change the status quo? It will be to passing by the pedagogy of the change of mentality and behaviour which requires:

* The destruction of the wall of indifference: the struggle must continue seeing the significant progress which enable us to have hope.

* The fight against all forms of discrimination against women: it is a means which enables women to free themselves from the system of domination by men which, as that of apartheid, is not irremovable and can therefore be eradicated.

* We all should, together work to change this system, because it was rooted for a long time so profoundly in almost all cultures. Seen from this angle, the requested effort to dismantle all the social structures which tolerate it or that secrete it, or that deny themselves apparently even to see it or to consider it to be as such (as discriminating), demand the imagination and lasting actions to be led on several fronts in a holistic and systematic perspective which must take into account all areas of life and all the actors.

* The struggle against all forms of discrimination against women does not limit only to punish the individual acts. It is necessary to work in a way to change deeply the beliefs so profoundly anchored in the mentalities which seem unconscious and which consider that basically, the women and the girls do not have value as much as men and boys. It is only when women and girls will have their place in the society in a quality of strong and equal members that discriminations against them in the Senegalese society will appear as a horrifying aberration rather than an invisible norm.

The immensity of obstacles and stakes related to tradition and to religion is likely to discourage more than an actor, but it will always be necessary to fight individually and collectively, in spite of difficulties which pose the fight for the liberation of the woman from the domination of the man.

By basing on what precedes, we can say that the first step consists of the implementation of the national and international juridical instruments relating to human rights in general, to the rights women particularly. In this title, it is possible to imagine appropriate strategies, smart and progressive reforms holders of change on the ground of the fight against all forms of discrimination against women.

At the international level, the Convention of United Nations against all forms of discrimination against women of 1979 (CEDAW), lays the foundations of a social change and successive legal reforms, but which the effectiveness demands method in the sense that they cannot change by the magic of the texts of beliefs and multi-secular practices, that are so profoundly anchored in the unthinking collective of communities.

Another supplementary instrument to the CEDAW in the fight against all forms discrimination against women is the Convention of United Nations on the rights of the child. From these two legal instruments of universal range are added other pacts or treaties including the African Charter for Human and the People’s rights of 1981 and the additional Protocol relating to the rights of the woman of 2002. It is through the education of children (girls as well as boys) that we can forge the weapon of social change.

Certainly, the children face in some extent the same otherwise worse forms of discrimination than women, but our purpose is elsewhere. In fact, the woman was educated to occupy her present status. One must therefore change this status through education so that she acquires a different status. As has mentioned the famous philosopher Simone de Beauvoir : « one does not born woman, we become it». We should derive the weapon of liberation of the woman from the domination of the man through the education of the girls in the same capacity as the boys who must be educated to look in another way at their sister, at their partner or at their colleague.

Besides, it is what encouraged certain African States in the implementation of programs favouring the education of girls in order to correct the inequality between them and boys. The inequality in the access to education is one of the most serious forms of discrimination against girls. It perpetuates their inferiority or weak position with regard to boys and makes them vulnerable in different despoiling such as harassment in working environment where the majority of women still do not have access to the authorities of decisions. On the other hand, because of illiteracy and growing pauperization, the most part of girls or women devote themselves to harmful practices to their health, or even to behaviours which reduce the value their status and their role in the society (prostitution, narcotic, for instance).

Education to human rights gives to girls to have confidence in themselves in order to better reinforce their capacities in school and university environment. In this way, it constitutes a precondition in progress struggle against all forms of discrimination directed to them. The access of girls, therefore future mothers of family to school has been very late and remains still very slow in the most part of the African countries. The happiness of the woman being in the conjugal home, even the rare promoted among the girls, were and still continue to be very precociously. They are pulled from the benches of the school by precocious marriage and motherhood which sometimes cause disastrous consequences (death after having their first sexual intercourse, complications during the pregnancy and during delivery).

Besides, the education to human rights also constitutes a means through which girls and boys can learn to consider themselves equal in relation to the social institutions and to promote equity in all forms of collaboration. In this respect, the actions of sensitization of girls and women on their rights constitute supplementary benefits in the pedagogy of labour legislative reforms. It would be necessary to lose of view that reforms on theoretical and legislative plan will have effect and can be led to a real social change only if we all want it and work out to create the favourable conditions to its realization.

It is then imperiously necessary to integrate the education to human rights in the programs of education from the primary school, by passing through secondary schools up to universities. Besides these programs of education it important to implement actions in the field to supplement in a pedagogic way legal and legislative reforms. In this title, three types of actions on the ground need to be implemented in field:

* Legal and judicial assistance to the victims of abuses.

* Sensitization for the popularization of the national and international legal instruments relating to the human rights in general, and to the rights of women and the child particularly.

* The strengthening of the capacities of women and children by qualifying training for their social status and to empower their economic and political powers which were subjected for a long time to the domination of men and boys.

3.2. What are the agents for change?

These are at the same time the social institutions, men and women, boys and girls. It is then necessary to reinforce the capacities of these institutions, its actors and actresses by trying to reconcile tradition and modernity. It passes necessarily by a pedagogic approach which takes into account the importance of civil and political rights of women and girls on the one hand, as well as their economic, social and cultural rights on the other hand.

To conclude, we shall say that the Gender approach in regard to violence, right to work and discriminations against women in working environment, constitute a pedagogic means enabling the involvement of all concerned actors among which:

* The religious and traditional or customary leaders

* The political authorities and decentralized local powers

* The technical directly or indirectly concerned ministries (ministries of the women or the family, justice, national education, social development or national solidarity, etc)

* The institutions of the republic (presidency of the republic, National Assembly, government, Constitutional Council or Supreme Court, State advice, supreme court of appeal, national audit office and courts)

* The organs of support of democracy such as the national commissions for human rights (CNDH), national autonomous electoral commission (CENA), the national council of broadcasting regulation (CNRA)

* The Economic and Social Council, the council of territorial communities

* The civil society organizations and those of private sector (trade-unions, employers, non governmental organizations, women or youths associations, old or handicapped) who have to participate in education and in popularization of the human rights, in the strengthening of the economic capacities of the women, to the struggle against impunity and injustice

* Populations themselves

* Private and public mass media.

* Aboubacry Mbodji is a Medical Anthropologist who is a Public Relations Officer of the African Assembly for the Protection of Human Rights (Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme - RADDHO), an NGO for Human Rights whish is a panafrican Orgaization based in Dakar, Senegal

* This paper was presented at the West Arica regional workshop on fair trial and criminal justice, 7th – 8th november 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The experience of using law to address the issue of domestic violence in Africa contains both positive and negative lessons for gender-equality campaigners, says Takyiwaa Manuh.

The annual mobilisation of women around the world around the theme of "16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence" from 25 November - 10 December 2007 represents a tremendous global effort to increase awareness of violence against women in all its forms. In light of the 2007 theme - demanding implementation, challenging obstacles - this article looks at the issue of domestic violence from the perspective of African experience, and examines the impact of attempts to address it by legal means. It poses three questions:

This article is the first in a series on openDemocracy marking the "16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence" from 25 November - 10 December, an annual mobilisation aimed at heightening global awareness of violence against women

Also in openDemocracy on the 16 Days theme, part of our overall 50:50 coverage, a multi-voiced blog where women around the world contribute

* what are the similarities and differences in the experiences of African countries that have attempted to pass domestic-violence legislation?

* what lessons have been learned in the process?

* how do attempts to pass such laws connect to the lived realities of ordinary women?

A new agenda

The past two decades have witnessed heightened activity by women's organisations and movements in several African countries to promote women's rights by redressing a range of discriminatory practices against women and unequal gender relations in public and domestic life, which work to prevent women from exercising their full rights as citizens. The link between the public and domestic arenas is important here, for (as Amina Salihu and her colleagues noted in a 2002 memorandum on women's citizenship rights in Nigeria), women's experience of citizenship is multilayered and interconnected: what happens at the level of the domestic arena is in turn carried over to what is generally called the public space.

The phenomenon of violence is only one aspect of the discriminatory practices and unequal relations women in Africa face, but it is a significant and widespread one. This is most shockingly on display in conditions of war, where (as in the current conflict in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example) women have been subjected to systematic assault and abuse. It is also apparent in more "normal" circumstances, such as the campaign for the presidential elections in Kenya in December 2007, where several women candidates have been targeted in an effort to prevent their campaigns from penetratating the largely male spaces of decision-making and national life.

Also on openDemocracy, listen to a podcast interview with Faustina Fynn Nyame, a midwife carrying out inspiring work in Ghana to help women gain access to safe abortion.

The African Platform for Action (Dakar declaration) of 1994 was a landmark document in highlighting the problem of violence against women on the continent. Before and since, however, such violence has often gone unreported, and until recently there were across Africa few supporting pieces of legislation or official practice that could be used to challenge it. True, several states had signed and/or ratified international conventions and treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) of 1979 or the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, but these had not been incorporated into domestic law.

The protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was ratified by the required fifteen member-states, and came into force on 26 November 2005. It places an obligation on state-parties to take measures to address not only violence against women but also other aspects of women's rights: in public or private life, in peacetime and during periods of war or conflict. It also explicitly includes marital rape and other forms of forced or unwanted sex.

Women activists have been emboldened by these developments to push states as far apart as Mauritania and Rwanda to enact legislation addressing gender-based violence; Sierra Leone is the latest country to have successfully enacted legislation (although the practice of female genital mutilation has not yet been outlawed). Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana have also attempted to pass domestic-violence laws; here, however, the experience has been disparate.

Four countries, four experiences

In Nigeria, a draft domestic-violence bill prepared by the Legislative Advocacy Coalition on Violence against Women has been lodged in the house of representatives (the lower house of parliament) since 2003, but has not even been listed in the order paper for hearing. The provision on marital rape, which some view as "western" and "against the culture of Nigeria" has been invoked to explain the slow progress of the bill; settling it would, it is claimed, allow the bill to be passed into law. The contradiction here is that Nigeria has already ratified the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, which prohibits marital rape without any reservations.

The Kenyan experience highlights a different face of misogyny. A sexual-offences bill that seeks harsher penalties for perpetrators of sexual violence became mired in controversy when a legislator (male, as were 204 of the 222 expected to vote on the bill) alleged that some provisions would criminalise men's advances towards women. Civil-society groups demanded that their votes should be transparent; when gun-toting policemen blocked activists from entering parliament to press this demand, they chanted anti-rape songs and chanted at the police: "Kill us today so that we do not get raped tomorrow!"

The Ugandan situation represents a further interesting contrast. In December 2003, a domestic-relations bill was tabled before parliament, containing a host of provisions to deal with discriminatory laws and practices in marriage, divorce, inheritance, property ownership, and violence and equality within marriage and the family. Sylvia Tamale charts what happened next: the bill reached the committee stage in early 2005, only to generate massive controversy that stretched beyond parliament to the media and the streets (see "The Right to Culture and the Culture of Rights: A Critical Perspective on Sexual Rights in Africa", Feminist Legal Studies [forthcoming]). A scathing attack on the bill's contents by the legal and parliamentary affairs committee was echoed in a demonstration on 29 March 2005 by hundreds of women (the majority of them wearing the hijab) in the streets of Kampala. They described the bill as a "coup against family decency", and swore to oppose its passage. A few weeks later, parliament shelved the bill for "more extensive consultations." When President Yoweri Museveni declared during the election campaign in February 2006 that "it (the domestic-relations bill) was not urgently needed", the debate was effectively closed. It was a severe setback for Uganda's women's movement.

A more positive legislative outcome was witnessed in Ghana. Here, a domestic-violence bill was subject to more than three years of extensive national consultations led by the government ministry of women's and children's affairs; the Domestic Violence Coalition, formed to support the passage of the bill, also played a key role in the process. There was early resistance from a surprising source, the then minister of women's affairs (who argued that the law would "destroy families"); and the coalition's demand for the repeal of S42(g) of the criminal code (the so-called "marital-rape exemption" also caused bitter acrimony. Those opposed to the bill portrayed it and its gender-activist supporters as purveying "foreign" ideas that threatened Ghanaian cultural beliefs and practices - in particular, the sanctity of marriage and men's rights within it.

This reaction highlighted the lack of understanding of gender-based violence as an equality issue that surrounded the debate over the proposed legislation in Ghana. Even within the state and among the general public, fixed and regressive attitudes remained prevalent - that women in social life and within marriage had an inferior status, and that women were to blame for provoking acts of violence by the way they dressed or for being unfaithful.

In the event, the Domestic Violence Act was passed on 21 February 2007, without the express repeal of S42(g), although with the provision that "(the) use of violence in the domestic setting is not justified on the basis of consent." However, within a few weeks of the passage of the law, the statute law commissioner, acting on his own initiative, removed the offending S42(g) from the statute-book.

This new legislation has been hailed as a triumph, but much work remains to be done to ensure that it is fully implemented. This will require - so activists and human-rights advocates in Ghana argue - a comprehensive, nationwide domestic action plan and the provision of necessary human and budgetary resources (partly in light of the fact governments have in practice relied on donors to fund gender work in Ghana). Some aspects of the social environment - in which most Ghanaian women still live in poverty, depend on men, and are surrounded by attitudes and codes that tolerate oppressive behaviour or allow serious violations of women's rights to be "settled" without justice or accountability - reinforce the argument that implementation mechanisms are vital.

The next stage

Violence, including domestic violence, deprives women of their ability to achieve their full potential by threatening their safety, freedom and autonomy. This variety of African experiences shows that the formulation of laws is an important instrument in countering this threat; but it is not enough to eliminate gender-based violence or (as in the Ugandan case) to ensure its general acceptability, even among women. Rather, multiple strategies and approaches are needed that recognise the differing interests, lived realities and contradictions among women of different class, religious and cultural backgrounds; and to find ways to express proposed changes in language and practices that better approximate women's lived realities and experiences.

* This article was originally published in the independent online magazine as part of their coverage of 16 Days Against Gender Violence. It is republished by kind permission of the author, and openDemocracy. You can view the blog at [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) and the Open Society Institute’s (OSI) Public Health Program are requesting proposals from coalitions of women’s rights and HIV and AIDS organizations in Southern Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, or Uganda that wish to, among others, develop proposals for submission to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria that address the specific vulnerabilities of women and girls.

A group of Somalis wrote their names in the genesis book of history at the weekend by launching the first-ever gay website [www.somaligaycommunity.org">. The Project Manager of Somali Gay Community in the United Kingdom, Murad, said the site, which aims to woo Somalis the world over, is designed to bridge information drought surrounding gay affairs in a purely conservative and Muslim society like Somalia.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has strongly criticised the Anglican Church for its stance on homosexuals. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, the Archbishop accused the Church of being “obsessed” with the issue of gay priests, while ignoring pressing global needs such as poverty and HIV. "Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids - a devastating pandemic, and conflict," said Archbishop Tutu, 76.

The Commonwealth Games Federation, a multinational sporting event in which some 5,000 athletes from 53 former British colonies, the United Kingdom and Mozambique compete every four years, has chosen Glasgow, Scotland, as the host city for the 2014 games. Nigeria’s Abuja had been considered a strong contender to host the event, but the country’s homophobic policies coupled with questions raised by the African nation’s gay activists about ongoing persecution of gay and lesbian Nigerians seem to have derailed the city’s bid.

The right to live free of violence and discrimination is the right of every human being. Yet, as we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, this right is being violated on a massive and systematic scale. Violence against women continues in every part of the world and it limits social and economic progress and harms families and communities.

As in countries throughout Africa and around the world, the abuse of women and children continues to be a challenge for authorities in Ghana. Recognizing traditional police forces were ill equipped to deal with such cases, the Ghana Police Services established the national DOVVSU unit more than a decade ago.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/broadcasts/Usu-Mallya.jpgUsu Mallya, the Executive Director of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), talks to George Njogopa about Tanzania and the Protocol of the Rights of Women in Africa, which the country ratified in March this year. She applauds the political commitment shown by the government but says it now needs to make sure that Tanzania’s laws comply with the protocol and that women are made aware of their rights.

Activists are pushing the World Bank and IMF to change the lens through which they view gender's role in development. Although women are the majority of the world's poor, activists say, the institutions overlook that when influencing economies.

With your participation, WOUGNET in collaboration with Womensnet, South Africa and APC-Africa-Women (AAW), will be conducting an SMS-based campaign. The idea is to send out an SMS on each of the 16 Days of Activism that will allow individuals and organisations to Speak Out, Stand Out, and Commit to preventing Violence against Women. We would like you to send your slogan/message which highlights your resistance to violence against women.

Manal Abdelhalim reflects on the Sudan's progress towards ending violence and discrimination against women, within the context of the protocol.

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Women in Africa is considered as one of the important women’s rights protection instruments at regional level. It emphasize on women in conflict, women refugees, displaced, women under severe poverty and harmful practices. This article will reflect that the ratification of the protocol is crucial for Sudanese women because it highlights on the present situation on the Sudanese women.

Education- equal opportunity: the dream of millions of the girls’ child

While the article 12 of the protocol stated that “eliminate of all forms of discrimination against women and guarantee equal opportunity and access in the sphere of education and training” educational opportunities for women and girls are very limited, the rate of enrollment ranges between 86% in Khartoum state and between 21% and 30% in other states, particularly Darfur state. Dropout rates amongst girls in primary school are high. The curriculum is gender biased and does not consider the cultural diversity; it perpetrates stereotyping roles of women. The illiteracy rate amongst women is also very high.

FGM: from “prohibition” to “legislation”

Sudan is among 28 African countries which are heavily practicing the female circumcision/ FGM. It had been prohibited by Sudan’s penal code from 1946 (during colonial era) until 1983, the most sever form of female circumcision, infibulations, was prohibited by penal code. The offense was punishable by imprisonment of maximum five years and / or a fine. The law was initially enacted under British colonial rule and was ratified again in 1957 and 1974; this provision was apparently repealed with the promulgation of the 1983 penal code which included no provision on infibulations. The 1991 penal code also contains no provisions explicitly prohibiting F.C.

In 1981, a national workshop was held on F.C [1] issues and solid strategies were recommended and were set. The major achievement of the 1981 conference was the establishment of the Sudanese National Committee for the Eradication of Female Circumcision (SNCEFC); it was established by decree of the Minster of the interior and social welfare in 1984. The committee was eventually replaced by Eradication of Traditional Harmful Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (ETHP). However, the state has taken backward steps from its commitment. Regarding the injection of F.C. information within the educational curricula, it was meant to be introduced at primary school level (8thclass), and secondary school (1st and 2nd class). But the idea was widely resisted by the General Assembly members; accordingly, the textbook was withdrawn in 1999, and then resumed in 2000.

May conference on FGM: the wrong end of the rope

In May 2002, a large conference was held by the Women’s College of Omdurman Islamic University and sponsored by the Ministry of Guidance and Endowment. It was attended by physicians, scientists, religious leaders and NGO representatives. The main outcome of the conference was an official change of attitude towards “legalizations” of FGM as part of Islamic practice” and it was concluded that “the state [has] to encourage such a recommendation”.

Civil society and women organizations and some human rights organizations have to reorganize themselves to reshape an effective advocacy plans and to lobby the government’s concerned bodies for law initiation. Protocol articles on harmful traditional practices can be used as strong instrument in their advocacy plan.

Political participation- 2008 election can make a difference

Women’s participation in Politics is minimal and meager. Up to date the rate of women ministers at federal levels is only 6.8% compared to the male rate at states level, which stands at 8.6%.[2] The rate of women in parliament is 19.7% and until 2003 the participation of women in higher ranks of public service in different government bodies did not exceed 11%. The number of women in senior civil service posts in Khartoum was 343 out of a total of 1642 posts. In the states, the number is 3241 posts out of 10448 posts. There were only 67 female judges in Sudan, 2 ambassadors and 17 diplomats. In the public sector, women’s participation is 35% and in the private sector it is 10% in the state of Khartoum. Although women participate by 80% in agricultural operations, their calculated contribution in the national economy is only 26%. This is as well as and despite the effort they exert in performing household duties; which is not considered work [3].

The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), DPA AND EPA are providing a solid base for women to lobby the States Parties for effective representation and participation of women at all levels of decision-making. Sudanese women rights bottleneck: access to justice /access to law: The promotion of women’s legal rights is affected by the lack of legal awareness, inaccessibility and lack of availability of legal services for women. Legislation is drenched in technical language to the point that it excludes laypersons from understanding and exercising their rights. Furthermore, prevalence of discriminatory laws and Acts restricts women, cripples their status and restricts their freedom and mobility.[4] Examples of these laws include the Labor Law, Nationality Law, Criminal Act, the Public Orders Law, Land Ownership, Personal Status Law and Customary Laws, amongst others.

According to the Nationality Act, Sudanese women who have children born to a non-Sudanese father have no right to claim Sudanese nationalities for their children.[5] The Public Orders Law for Khartoum state 1996 raised controversial discussions and dialogue about its articles that control the freedom and mobility of women. Each State has its own law and there are no great differences in their contents. Article 7 forbids mixed dance and does not allow women to dance in front of men. Article 9 specifies one door and ten seats allocated for women on public transport. Article 16 sets the age at which a woman may manage her own hair dressing shop at 35 years of age. Article 18 prohibits men from practicing tailor work for women except after obtaining approval from local authorities. Although Sharia law should only apply to Muslim citizens, women belonging to other religions have to adopt an Islamic dress code. This includes the requirement for women to cover their heads with veils and prosecutions for those found brewing alcohol. Women are often convicted and their business merchandise confiscated.

Women in conflict: ending all forms of sexual violence

Sudan has been hardly attested by long civil wars and conflicts, accordingly women’s situations have been altered to cope with the war situation. They are the most affected by armed conflicts; they always end up shouldering the burden of loss of family members, displacement, fragmentation, identity crisis, insecurity and end up heading households. Also, their accessibility to food, shelter, resources, markets and income becomes increasingly limited. Sudanese women’s efforts to contribute in the Sudan Peace talks and negotiations have been largely sidelined. The prevailing situation (atrocities committed against women and girls) resulted from the latest conflict in Darfur and has created a wide spectrum of issues; yet, women are not powerless or victims to their circumstance. On the contrary, they are heads of households and community keepers; they struggle to keep their families, communities and their identity in tact to surpass any armed struggle.

It is great opportunity and it is a high time for Sudanese women to take the privileges and opportunities created by the existence of new peace settlement by the AU and the UN, particularly in Darfur to advocate for the protocol ratification.

More orientation is needed

Since the adoption of the protocol in 2003, very little efforts have taken place to diffuse the protocol’s content and lobbying for ratification. The first orientation session has been held by Mutawinat group following the adoption of the protocol. The objective of the session was to orient the civil society groups in Sudan by the existence of the protocol as well as to reveal the government attitudes towards the protocol.

Zienab Abbas (Sudanese women’s right activist participated on stages of the negotiations that the protocol has passed), according to Mrs. Zienab ‘’the protocol was exhausted extensive consultations, discussions and brainstorming, before its formulation so this why the protocol considered as a comprehensive and human rights document for African women”. “Unlike the CEDAW the protocol emphasized on harmful practices and for the first time FGM to be singled out as one of the most harmful practice in Africa. One of the most privileges of the protocol is considering the situation of women during war and conflicts, women refugee, displaced, women under severe poverty”

Mrs. Aisha Abuelgasim (Ministry of social planning Advisor) revealed the preliminary official reactions to the protocol; the government tends to make some reservations on the following articles:

Article no. 20-(b) (a widow shall automatically become the guardian and custodian of her children, after the death of her husband, unless this is contrary to the interests and the welfare of the children). The reason of conservation is that item contradicts with personal status matters law, 1991.

Article no. 7-(a) (Separation, divorce or annulment of as marriage shall…).

Article no. 14 (State parties shall ensure that the right to health of women including sexual and reproductive health is respected and promoted …..) Article no. 6 (State parties shall ensure that women and men enjoy equal rights and are regarded as equal partners in marriage.

According to Aisha the government did not submit a detailed justifications for such reservations but in generally the reason given is that these items are either contradicting with the prevailing laws or with Shari’a principles.

One step forward

SOAWR has played a great role to push the ratification issue in Sudan during the January 2006 summit. In collaboration with SIHA and several Sudanese organizations SOAWR hosted a well attended symposium on the Protocol addressing the Protocol’s various articles from an Islamic perspective. As an immediate outcome of the meeting, Sudan was red-carded with the Minister of Health receiving the card for President Bashir. Sudanese organizations also circulated a petition calling on the Sudanese government to deposit its instrument of ratification. SIHA also became a member of SOAWR and committed to expanding the campaign’s reach to its members in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Somaliland and the Sudan. More recently, SIHA has participated on a joint SOAWR/Oxfam GB Workshop to Review the Governance and Transparency Funding Bid. As a result a country strategy (2008-2012) has been developed as one step towards advocating for ratification and making the Protocol widely popular in the Sudan. The main aim of the strategic plan is to take advantage of new political and supportive atmosphere of the first general election, by 2008, following the signing of CPA, and to secure ratification by 2009.

* Manal Abdelhalim is programme director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA)

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

For notes, see link below.

On the second anniversary of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, Marren Akatsa-Bukachi reflects on the challenges faced in the past year.

It was an appealing sunny day in mid November 2005, Sarah Mukasa then of Akina Mama wa Afrika and I were geared for a higher and more important level of gender activism. I represented the Eastern African Sub Regional Support Initiative for Women (EASSI), and Sarah Akina Mama both members of the Coalition on Solidarity on African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) and were conducting a workshop in Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala Uganda.

We had co-organized the workshop to unpack the outcome of a previous workshop that was organized by SOAWR in conjunction with the African Union in September 2005 in Addis Ababa. The workshop was called to discuss domestication and implementation strategies of the Protocol. Sarah and I both energized, were eager to share the good news with a large constituency of Uganda civil society.

The Protocol was about to come into force on November 25th following the 15th ratification by Togo. The Protocol’s significance lies in the fact that it is the only regionally generated document specifically on the rights of African women and that relates to the context specific violations of African Women’s Human Rights. Coincidentally this date would coincide with the beginning of 16th Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. I felt elated. This was prophetic. To add to the “high,” Uganda was on the verge of ratification. This confidence was buoyed by the revelation by the government representative that the Protocol had passed through all the necessary stages and was only awaiting Cabinet approval. We were assured this would take place speedily before the matter of the General Elections, scheduled to take place in February 2006 would get in the way.

With reenergized spirits, we discussed strategies for domestication and ratification as if we already had won the prize. Little did we know that dark forces were lingering in the shadows. Even as we spoke, there was a double page spread in the local dailies vilifying the Protocol. The article was sponsored by the Catholic Bishops and was specifically speaking to Article 14 on Health and Reproductive Rights. The Article states inter alia, that “Protect the rights of reproductive rights of women by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus”.

‘The Protocol for Women’s Rights in Africa supports Abortion,” screamed one headline. “Catholic Bishops decry abortion”, shrieked another. It seemed our celebration was turning into battle. We had already identified the ratification platform as a basis for deeper advocacy for the passing of the stalled Domestic Relations Bill whose content was more or less reinforced by the Articles in the Protocol, when the Bishops came up with their bombshell. In an election year everyone with power to influence a significant voting constituency becomes a darling and the Bishops had stirred a hornet’s nest. In Uganda where almost 50% of the populations (read voters) are Catholics, this constituency cannot be ignored. The Protocol was placed into cold storage and stayed there to date.

Two years after coming into force, seven more countries have ratified the Protocol, bringing the total to twenty two, twenty four countries have signed but not ratified while seven have not signed at all.

Advocacy by SOAWR

SOAWR can be credited with contributing to the respectable level of achievement of almost 50 percent ratification by the fifty three African Union Member States.

Its strategy of using the African Union Summits of Heads of States as a lobby platform has elicited tremendous levels of success.

Since January 2005 members of the SOAWR Coalition have attended the African Union (AU) Summits to ensure that the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa remains on the agenda of policy makers and to urge all African leaders to safeguard the rights of women through ratification and implementation of the Protocol. Members have consistently produced policy-briefs, launched books and held press conferences during the Summits to keep the Protocol at the forefront of policy-makers’ concerns. Members have also directly met with at least 10-15 Ministers over the last six Summits. Since January 2005, SOAWR has used the opportunity of the Summits taking place in different countries to press on the host to either ratify or move to implementation.

The latest addition to the countries that have ratified the Protocol is Ghana, host of the last AU Summit that deposited its instruments of ratification in July 2007 almost two weeks after hosting the Summit. This is a testimony to SOAWR’s. tenacity and lobbying skills. This brings ratification countries to 22.

During the Summit, a team drawn from national coalitions and the steering committee met and committed to the following:-

1. Prepared and circulated to Ministers a short policy brief on the status of the Protocol and the implications of Continental Government proposal for women’s rights and gender equality
2. Participated in CSO pre-Summit activities planned with a view to raising visibility for women’s rights and gender equality issues and participating in the Grand Debate
3. Maintained relationships with key Government delegations
4. Co-convened with Ghanaian women’s coalition, a university based seminar on the Protocol.

Amongst other pre-summit activities carried out by SOAWR was the Public Forum which was titled “Is it possible to have a United States of Africa without Women?” and What form would be meaningful for African Women? The forum provided an opportunity for governments as well as African civil society to deliberate on the Grande debate on Continental Unity and also on issues of harmful traditional practices with special focus on the Trokozi practice in relation to the Protocol. Other activities included a Press Conference, SOAWR Planning and Evaluation Meeting and Direct Advocacy with the Permanent Representatives Council of the different African Countries in the African Union (see Appendixes 1- 5).

I was among those privileged to lobby the foreign Ministers and their representatives at the Summit venue. We gave out red cards to those countries that had not signed the Protocol, yellow cards to those that had signed and not yet ratified and green cards to those that had signed and ratified. We lobbied actively amongst the delegates during tea time and any time they stepped outside the conference hall. We congratulated those that had ratified and exhorted those that needed to ratify or deposit instruments of ratification to do so. We were elated to hear that Liberia only needed to deposit the instruments and expected to see it amongst the group of green cards within two weeks of leaving Accra. To date we are still waiting. It is sad but true, what is on paper is not necessarily put in practice!

Our lobbying strategies were very interesting but also revealed at times that those sent to represent their governments at these meetings are not always up to par with regard to issues such as the Protocol. Many a time we were informed that the person dealing with this matter was left behind in the capital city and there was nothing they could do about it. I remember on one of the days when we stood outside the meeting hall, our body language must have given us away as one of the delegates asked pointedly, “whom are you waiting to pounce on next?” It elicited laughter but at the same time showed that our seriousness was visible to all. Our strategy was to demand that none “signatory countries sign up, signed up countries move to ratification as speedily as possible, the “ratifiers” domesticate and implement. We found to our surprise that there was a gap in information with quite a large number of delegates not quite aware of the Protocol but also a good number supportive and willing to take some action back in their own countries. I realized that there is an information gap here that needs to be plugged if SOAWR is to achieve 100 per cent ratification. Government officials in key ministries such as foreign affairs need to be sensitized on the Protocol.

In some countries it is considered a gender issue and embedded in the ministry of Gender or Women’s Affairs. The Coalition may need to design a program specifically targeting policy makers to make them aware of the Protocol and its benefits to the country and to women’s rights. It should not be seen as threatening existing rights but as scaling up these rights, particularly social and cultural rights. I say this because when I was on a visit to Ethiopia and enquired from one of our partners why Ethiopia has not ratified the Protocol, the response was that the Ethiopian Constitution is very gender sensitive and already touched on the very issues propounded in the Articles in the Protocol. None the less, women’s organizations are fighting patriarchy and gender based violence, amongst them female genital mutilation that would benefit from ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol. As for Eritrea, it is still at the red card stage and has not signed the Protocol. However, after years of lobbying by the National Union of Eritrean Women, the government outlawed FGM in May 2007.

Even as SOAWR Coalition continues to lobby for total and unreserved ratification, it does not miss an opportunity to make demands on the member states. Using the opportunity afforded by the AU Summit in Accra and the discourse around an African Union Government, SOAWR came up with the following demands:

Specifically, the African Heads of States and Government meeting in Accra should show commitment to continental unity by embracing the following:

• Incorporation of gender equality in the values underpinning the Proposal of United States of Africa
• Instituting and making public during the next Summit a performance audit of the Directorates of the African Union Commission in terms of the incorporation of gender concerns (2004-2007)
• Prioritization of the rights and entitlements of refugees and displaced populations, particularly women and girls.
• Prioritization of full citizenship status for women in terms of rights, particularly women who marry across nationalities and lose their rights.
• Guarantee to women the freedom to trade and work across states’ borders. Women small traders manage a high degree of non-formal cross border trade
• Conduct analysis into the gendered implications of macroeconomic policy with respect to the ‘convergence criteria’.
• Enable total factor mobility—the free movement of all factors of production (labour as well as capital)—by addressing questions of African citizenship, including African women’s equal citizenship rights and freedom of movement at the continental level.
• Embedding the principle of gender parity in the election and appointment of persons to the continental institutions.
• Ensuring that the principle of appointing 50% women commissioners at the African Union Commission continues to be honoured.
• Increasing the minimum threshold for women MPs elected to the African parliament to at least two per country
• Review all recommendations (in the continental government proposal) in light of deficiencies already noted by the African women’s movement with respect to ensuring the equal representation of African women at the Abu’s highest decision-making organs—for instance, the Commission’s Chair could also have a Deputy responsible for gender mainstreaming across her/his ‘Cabinet’ and all Commissioners responsible for programs and projects under the strategic focus areas should ensure that gender implications are taken into account in their elaboration and implementation;
• Publicly censuring countries that have yet to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of African Women.
• Honor their commitment to deliver on the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.
• Demonstrate greater commitment to the normative framework already established by the AU—particularly with respect to the promotion and protection of human rights (including women’s human rights), peace and security.

The debate on the Union Government is timely, but it will only be relevant in as far as it will recognize that the majority of the African people are women and girls; and that to win their confidence African Leaders need to seriously take up their concerns head on.

We came back full circle in Uganda on October 18th 2007; we were back in the same venue where we were in November 2005 once again with Akina Mama wa Afrika to again discuss the stalled ratification process in Uganda. This time the aim was to put in place a steering committee that over see different strategies to ensure ratification and implementation of the Protocol. The committee’s first task is to find out exactly where the protocol is stalled. Is it in the Attorney General’s Office or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? A video documentary made by Akina Mama to popularize the Protocol had one of the Christian Bishops proposing that the Protocol should be signed with reservations on Article 14 otherwise it will be a tough battle ahead..

Is this Uganda’s desire for her future?

* Marren Akatsa-Bukachi is the executive director of the Eastern African sub Regional Support Initiative for Advancement of Women (EASSI)

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org