This paper argues that HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns have missed the point by concentrating on women's empowerment and women's ability to negotiate safer sex. Instead it asks to what extent disempowered men in East Africa are motivated for responsible sexual behaviour and HIV/AIDS prevention. Drawing on research in rural and urban East Africa, the paper discusses how socio-economic change has limited men's access to income-earning opportunities, leaving many men unable to fulfil the social roles of breadwinner and household head.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) presented its congratulations to Liberia's new President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, at her official inauguration ceremony in Monrovia on 16 January 2006, pledging US$500,000 to support the Ministry of Gender and Development, and women's organizations to promote gender equality and peace in the country. "UNIFEM is proud to have supported the Ministry of Gender and development, and women's organizing throughout Liberia to reach this truly historic achievement," said Noeleen Heyzer, UNIFEM's executive director, who attended the inauguration.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will hold its 50th session from 27 February to 10 March 2006 at UN headquarters in New York. The Commission will focus on two thematic issues: Enhanced participation of women in development: an enabling environment for achieving gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of education, health and work; and Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels. This will fit with the theme of International Women’s Day, held annually on March 8th, of "Women in decision-making: meeting challenges, creating change."

The Association of Women in Development (AWID) interviewed Roselynn Musa, of FEMNET, about her experiences at the World Social Forum, held late January in Bamako, Mali. "As regards global issues there was some stock-taking on certain themes which were central to the World Social Forum that was held at Porto Alegre in 2004. These themes were neo-liberal globalisation, the future of women's bodies, conflict and militarism, women and peace, fundamentalisms combating gender equality and the exclusion of women from decision-making organs."

Internews Network is currently seeking a Resident Advisor for Gender Based Violence Reporting for our community radio project and production studio in northern Chad. The project is designed to ensure that residents of the region (both permanent and temporary) receive accurate, up-to-date information on events and activities taking place within the region. Reports will be disseminated in multiple local languages in order to reach the greatest number of people.

South African leader Thabo Mbeki, in his state of the nation address at the opening of parliament in Cape Town last Friday, focused on plans to support government’s accelerated and shared growth initiative (Asgi), aimed at boosting economic growth and job creation. But Mohau Pheko and Lebohang Pheko, from the Gender & Trade Network in Africa, take Mbeki to task for failing to adequately consider the country’s women in his latest plans to fast-track growth.

Dear Mr. President Thabo Mbeki,

You have missed a great opportunity in the State of the Nation Address to articulate the problems confronting the women of South Africa. Why is it after 50 years of contributing to resistance, opinions, wisdoms and economic growth in this country when you mention us in your speeches we are merely lumped together with the disabled who should also take exception to this patronising marginalisation.

Since this is the 50th year that women celebrate their tremendous contribution to this country, it is worth using it to sum up what the last 12 years have been like in terms of economic policy. In adopting a market led macroeconomic strategy, we should tell you that the relationship between women, markets and the state has been increasingly complex. The market in the past 12 years has not acted in the interest of women nor has the state always acted in the interests of women. This has resulted in a rather disconnected policy framework which has failed to accurately evaluate the realities of women’s lives which are controlled through the interaction of economic, political, social and cultural forces based on class, gender and race. The policy framework has also failed to evaluate women’s role in social reproduction and how they maintain life within the family and communities they live in.

It is deplorable that women in the South Africa’s policy framework are still treated as dependents and instruments for family survival or state objectives. South Africa has long neglected gender as a category in the economic analysis of poverty, growth, inequality and the concentration of wealth. The frameworks suggested for poverty eradication by 2014 do not empower the majority of women in their own right. They tend to view women from a skewed perspective of ‘neediness’ rather than recognizing women’s wisdom, intellect, and achievements.

More importantly the assumptions in your Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) do not spell out how the women of this country stand to benefit from this plan. The latest labour survey still reports that women are the most unemployed in the country. The most recent United Nations Human Development Report for South Africa confirms that women are still the poorest in our country and this trend is downward. In ASGISA, who are you accelerating growth for? How will you ensure that women qualitatively and quantitatively share in this growth? What type of growth are you talking about? The pattern of growth is as important as the rate of growth. Some growth patterns even if they increase per capita income and consumption may in the long run be detrimental to women as we have experienced in the current neo liberal framework. Economic growth without a distribution mechanism is inimical to women. Economic growth that depends on cuts in public expenditure, productivity, on labour deregulation are a danger to women in this country. Growth patterns or resource allocation that do not meaningfully integrate women, or result in growth equity are all costly to the women of this nation.

Many of your policy makers and public servants do not understand that women experience poverty differently from men due to gender inequalities resulting in different access to entitlements, economic leverage and social advancement. Women are subjected to the intergenerational transfer of poverty. Women have fewer economic resources, less access to labour markets. They shoulder greater responsibilities at the household level and many have restrictions on their mobility. These interlocking disadvantages result in women having less time to access your expanded works programme and less power to negotiate opportunities. How will ASGISA respond?

Gender equity is the power relationship that enables men and women to have equal access to the scarce and valued resources of their society. Within asymmetrical, unequal power relations at the household level women are the least powerful. These asymmetries include employment, education, wages, personal autonomy, healthcare, leisure and decision-making. The over weaning posture and support given to the male private sector has not been extended to women in the same way. Business and Economic Commissions set up to advise the President are still dominated by males. Trading enterprises have put severe limitations on market opportunities for many impoverished women and has allocated to them the nooks and crevices. The issue is not just the quantity of market opportunities it is also the quality. Many women work in the informal market under conditions of insecurity, are subjected to police harassment and exploitation and have little bargaining power and freedom to organize. At the same time, the commercialization of common property and cutbacks and privatization of healthcare and education have deprived women in poverty of access to affordable resources to improve their conditions. To what extent does ASGISA address these issues and how will it act as a catalyst in changing these critical dimensions?

The growth process suggested in ASGISA will in fact create new patterns of poverty deprivation for women because the issues that create inequality have been embedded and reproduced in ASGISA. In our country, women are responsible for social reproduction and daily household management. Since ASGISA is dependent on labour flexibility, inadvertently, women are the ones who will pay the cost by having to devise coping and survival strategies when household incomes fall and prices rise.

When food prices increase, when user charges for water, healthcare, electricity, and education are introduced and increased, the access of women to these services is affected, especially in a situation of poverty. There has been the casualisation of women’s work to lower unit labour cost, not just in the informal sector but also in the formal sector in terms of outsourcing or subcontracting arrangements. What is happening is that economic growth will depend on increased efficiency becoming a transfer cost subsidized by women from the paid economy to the unpaid work of women at the household level. That second economy you keep talking about consists of millions of women who subsidise the first economy without any fruits of growth accruing to them. Women especially in the rural and peri-urban areas are concentrated in the agricultural sector and the informal sector where the rate of growth and the potential for growth is relatively low to non-existent. In the industrial sectors women are concentrated in the unskilled or semi-skilled categories and have limited access to opportunities and benefits of economic development and growth. Is ASGISA a sufficient tool for standing up to these challenges?

The role of the State in distributing resources along gender, class and race lines to ensure access is critical if there is to be any meaningful developmental benefit for women. These social constructs and lived realties are essential mediating factors. The State is not a private company but a nation requiring government intervention to enable social cohesion, people participation and conscious distribution of the fruits of growth.

* Mohau Pheko and Lebohang Pheko are with the Gender & Trade Network in Africa, which works on international trade providing macroeconomic, trade, and policy literacy on the Africa continent. It works in 18 countries and is linked to the International Gender & Trade Network based in Brazil. Contact 082 6702505/084 881 9327

* Please send comments to

Can protocols and legislation really be an effective weapon against gender discrimination? Janah Ncube examines the Southern African Development Community and contends that while law may not change a moral belief, it can stop a husband from beating his wife to pulp, penalize unfair employment practices, and punish rape. “Legislation has proved that with the state upholding it, social norms eventually conform to it if it is beneficial to all peoples.”

It is no longer business as usual in the SADC region for development and gender stakeholders. After representatives from SADC Member States in government and civil society, regional NGOs, inter-governmental bodies and SADC Secretariat met in Botswana in December 2005, they concluded that if any integration in the SADC region is to be successful, sustainable and achievable, it has to be gender based regional integration.

The Executive Secretary of the SADC Secretariat Dr. Tomaz Salamao urged SADC governments to facilitate the implementation of the SADC Gender programme to enable the gender equality and equity objective to be attained. The driving force behind this consultative conference was the head of the Gender Unit at the SADC Secretariat Mrs. Magdaline Mathiba-Madibela who had the foresight to lobby and push for an action plan. Thus the 5 year SADC Gender Based Regional Integration Strategic Implementation Framework (2006 – 2010) was developed by the 110 participants.

The SADC Gender and Development conference was held in the backdrop of a region that is currently facing increasing poverty with over 70% of the region’s population living below US$2 per day and 40% below US$1 (SADC 2003), severe drought, extremely high HIV/AIDS prevalence (of the world population living with HIV, 60% come from the SADC region and of this number, 57% are women), serious food insecurity, high unemployment and cross border economic migrants.

While the only country in the SADC region experiencing ‘active conflict’ is the DRC, Angola is still reeling from the immediate effects of conflict including the problem of landmines, which Zimbabwe and Mozambique among others are still dealing with. Poor infrastructural development at national level and within the region in terms of connecting SADC Member States to facilitate trade and other cross-border initiatives is another such limitation.

All these limitations and challenges overbearing SADC precipitate as problems for women at practical day in day out experiences. This is because of the gendered nature of allocation of roles and responsibilities in our societies both at primary level (in the family) and at secondary level (in the public space). When the state cannot provide for its citizens, women become the subsidizers of the state by providing for unrecognized and unrewarded skills and services. The drastic expenditure budget cuts on social expenditure by governments in the late 1980s to 1990s due to structural adjustment programs give such evidence. African countries saw the negative impact of SAPs through the increased burden of care and basic food provision being shifted from the state to women (Maramba, Olagbegi & Webanenou 1995).

Women in the region have been facing increased challenges, marginalization and appalling gender crimes - despite vigorous gender awareness campaigns, women’s empowerment policies, legislation and programs adopted at national level since Beijing and other much earlier processes. What also is unique about the SADC region with regards to dissipating typical gender stereotypes is that women’s emancipatory efforts in this region were evidenced by their active participation together with the men in our liberation struggles (Campbell 2003).

However basic human rights, human dignity and human freedoms for them are still contested and have to be implored for diplomatically from our Heads of States. As seen in slavery, colonialism and apartheid, denial of rights of any persons is a mere facilitation of fictitious justifications for their exploitation. Until January 2006, adult women of Swaziland were being denied the dignity of being legal entities. Up to today, adult women in Botswana who decide to marry cannot open a water utilities account without the substantiation of their husbands. The way women are still portrayed in our media as trivial, sexual, insignificant entities of course perpetuates their secondary status in our societies.

Gendered violence is rampant in the SADC region and the conspiracy of silence around it in our homes, in our communities and indeed within the law has seen it multiply and become even more reckless as it is stealthily inflicted with impunity. Some of this abuse includes sexual crimes against baby girls as young as 3 days old; rape of primary school girls by male teachers and headmasters; gang rapes in daylight and cold and bloody murders sold to the world as ‘passion killings’.

While SADC is generally perceived as a region ‘enjoying’ peace, there is no peace in ordinary women’s everyday lives as husbands and lovers who claim to love them beat, kick and plunder their bodies. Of course this is called ‘domestic violence’ and has been found rather difficult to ‘treat’ in the justice system as it is a ‘household’ affair. Of course what is not being admitted here is that this is a security threat on the person of the victimised woman and is a denial of dignity when an external entity can bruise and break her body parts without legal recourse (see UDHR 1948).

The gendered division of labour within the region has resulted in the trivialization and marginalization of women’s work and their economic activities, which is practiced through denial of ownership and impossible access to resources such as land and capital; the criminalization or non regulation of the informal sector and lastly the non-costing of women’s work despite their long manual work.

This further buttresses not just the secondary status of women but is one of the key reasons developing countries have remained stuck in the poverty rut (UNIFEM 2005). SADC’s priority is to address the poverty that is in our region and unless we wake up to the reality that we have exhausted our capacity to further develop and grow the economies of our region based on exclusion and exploitation of women, we will stay in this rut for generations to come. The equality and equity agenda is not just about improving the situation of women, it is about improving the situation of our families which ripples into improving our communities, industries, countries and the region. It is about Africa utilizing all of its human skills in appropriating its resources to the best of its peoples. It is about attaining Africa’s potential by Africans for Africans.

In 2003, SADC came up with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) to guide SADC policies, programmes and actions. The RISDP re-enforces the strategy of regional integration which Oyejide (2000) argues is the most basic ingredient for attaining high and sustainable economic growth. The task of building a regional community in light of inequalities amongst the member states in terms of development and economic status and indeed those inequalities inherited from the colonial and imperial legacies based on race, gender, class and so forth, requires courageous and capable leadership, skills and resources.

However in light of global trends and the influence of International Financial Institutions (IFI) in local economies of developing countries such as SADC Member States, including trade agreements that are continually being made on North-South differential agreements, integration also becomes about synergies, pooling resources together, widening export markets, and enhancing capacity of the region while negotiating and engaging on international platforms and indeed negotiating for progressions within the region itsself (see ADB Report 2000).

The RISDP also recognizes that greater equality between women and men contributes to both development and economic growth. In light of this, gender mainstreaming has been adopted by SADC as a strategy for ensuring that all SADC policies, programmes and activities take into consideration the fact that women and men, boys and girls are affected differently by macro and micro initiatives and policies due to the gendered nature of our societies. Such disparities that leave women worse off than men must be addressed to achieve the goal of gender equality and equity.

At SADC secretariat level, the Gender Unit (GU) has the task of ensuring that gender is mainstreamed in SADC policies and programmes while at national level Member States have set up National Gender Machineries (NGM) as institutions to do the same in all government structures and initiatives and also advance the empowerment of women. As Win (2005) points out, NGM have failed to achieve the conceptualized and intended gender justice which they promised. They instead became token entities to ‘shut women up’ as either departments in ministries or fully-fledged ministries with other issues lumped together with them such as community development, youth, children etc.

As the ministers of Gender in Africa observed during the Beijing +10 process in October 2004, NGM lack capacity, authority and resources to implement the enormous task of engendering all of government. A capacity assessment of NGM commissioned by the GU also pointed out that NGM have no clear mandates, are peripheral entities in government and are poorly resourced (see GU Needs Assessment Study 2004). Despite this, NGM still remain the most effective institutions to mainstream gender in governments if they address these limitations and adopt the Gender Management System as a strategy. (The Gender Management System (GMS) is a network of structures, mechanisms and processes put in place within an existing organization to guide, plan, monitor and evaluate the process of mainstreaming gender.)

Indeed many peripheral analyses of the gender inequality/discrimination problem blame women for perpetuating this phenomenon. What they fail to acknowledge is the power of the socialisation process which does not separate women from men in reinforcing the messages of superior males and subordinate females stereotypes in our societies (see Oakley 1985). However the greatest challenge with changing gender-based disempowerment is that it is about women who are engaged in personal/intimate relationships with men who evoke their discrimination.

The racial discrimination fight was easier because the “other” was disengaged and not connected to the “us”. However this struggle is about going against the wisdom of a father, the perceptions of a husband, the practices mother taught. So sometimes it seems to be an internal fight between being loyal to what one has always known and believed and what one sees to be the path to attaining their potential, freedoms and security. The progressions that we have attained through legislation and policy changes indeed give hope to women that the equality goal can and will be attained. This is why the Gender and Development Conference called for the upgrading of the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development (1997) and its addendum on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children (1998) to a protocol. A protocol is a legally binding instrument which Member States will have to enforce. This protocol will incorporate all the targets of existing regional and international instruments and will at the same time incorporate existing issues which are highly impacting on the region such as HIV/AIDS and the trafficking of women for sex trade and other exploitations. Currently member states are in the process of consulting different stakeholders and mobilizing for support for the proposed protocol, targeted to be tabled before Heads of States at their next Summit in August 2006 in Lesotho.

While it is true that discrimination, exclusion and exploitation of women are moral issues that have been justified through traditional and religious interpretations and despite numerous progressive laws, they have continued to prevail and this has lead to myths that propagate ideas that protocols and legislation cannot solve these problems. Truth is, the law cannot change one’s interpretation of the Bible or one’s moral belief. However legislation has codified gender discrimination and to borrow from Martin Luther King Junior’s rationale on legislation (1968); legislation can regulate behaviour and keep a husband from beating his wife to pulp, legislation can penalize and consequently restrain an employer from paying women less than men for the same type of work and legislation can show men that they can not rape and get away with light penalties. Legislation has proved that with the state upholding it, social norms eventually conform to it if it is beneficial to all peoples.

The challenge for SADC is to move the SADC region from goodwill and commitments to implementation and tangible changes women can see in their daily lives. Member States can start by adopting, ratifying and domesticating the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. The rhetoric has to be replaced by budget allocations of at least 10% for women’s empowerment and gender related programs in each line ministry’s budgetary allocation. SADC needs to accelerate its pace on increasing women’s leadership in political and other decision-making processes. Current trends are too slow; we missed our target of 30% by 2005 and have not felt ashamed by it.

National Governments must strengthen the capacity of NGM by increasing resources, clout, access, skilled senior personnel and defining clear mandates for them. Women’s NGOs and NGM must discard mistrust and adopt the spirit of the conference resolutions of seeking ways of collaborating and sharing information to achieve national targets. Civil society must continue to mobilize and educate the peoples of the region on action areas and issues identified and prioritised for the next 5 years. The energies generated at the conference must be fanned into even greater momentum as more stakeholders in the region run with the agenda. The SADC Executive Secretary recently pointed out that without peace, all of SADC’s efforts to integrate the region are futile. Truth is they are doomed to fail unless meaningful gender conscious and pro-women paradigms are what inform the region’s developmental and economic growth agenda.

* Janah Ncube is Technical Advisor to the Gender
SADC Secretariat in Gaborone Botswana

* Please send comments to [email protected]

References:

ADB (2000) Afican Development Report 2000: Regional Integration in Africa www.afdb.org

Campbell, H. (2003) ‘Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation’ South Africa: David Philip Publishers

Commonwealth Secretariat (1999) ‘Gender Management System Handbook’. Commonwealth Secretariat UK

Maramba. P, Olagbegi. B, Webaneno R. T. (1995) ‘Structural Adjustment Programs and the Human Rights of African Women. WiLDAF. Zimbabwe

Martin Luther King Jnr (1963) Speech given at the Western Michigan University on Conscience of America: Social Justice December 18, 1963 www.wmich.edu/archives/mlk/transcription.html

Oakley, A. (1985). Sex, Gender and Society. Gower Publishing Company Ltd: Hants

Oyejide, T. A. (2000) “Policies for Regional Integration in Africa”. Economic Research Papers Series Issue No. 62. African Development Bank, Cote d’Ivoire.

SADC (2003) Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan. Southern African Development Community, Botswana.

SADC Secretariat (2004) Needs Assessment Study for Capacity Building of National machineries for Gender Equality I SADC Member States and the SADC Gender Unit. SADC. Botswana (unpublished)

UN (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. www.un.org/overview/rights.html

UNECA (2004) 7th African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing + 10) Decade Review of the Implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Actions. Outcomes and Way forward. October 12 – 14, 2004. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

UNIFEM (2005) The Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty. UNIFEM New York

Win, E (2005) in “Reclaiming the Women’s Rights Agenda” OSISA Quarterly Journal Open Space Volume 1, Issue 1 April 2005

If you’re a woman in Darfur and you want to lay a charge of rape, the chances are that the charge will be changed to one of assault. Even if you want to persist in your charge of rape, you’ll need four male witnesses to support your charge. As a result, sexual and gender based violence is one of the biggest violations of women’s rights in Darfur, writes Christine Butegwa from Femnet. Hopes are high that the International Criminal Court will be able to change the situation.

On 30 November 2004, 7 female internally-displaced people (IDPs), one of whom was pregnant, were attacked by an armed militia group allegedly in military uniform, near the Deraij camp, 4 km east of Nyala, Southern Darfur State. The 7 women and girls were fetching firewood outside the camp where they were reportedly attacked, beaten with guns on their chests and heads, and stripped. The armed militia later took 3 of them to an abandoned hut where they were raped. The other 4 women and girls managed to escape. All 7 women and girls were seriously injured and later received medical treatment at the Amel Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture victims. One of the survivors of the violence was transferred to the Nyala hospital where she miscarried.

This is just one of the cases that the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received from Sudan. Since the unfolding of the conflict in Darfur in February 2003, intolerable crimes against humanity have been committed in a massive and systematic manner. Over two million people have been forced to flee their homes and over 70,000 people have been killed as a direct result of violence. Women and children have been the main target of these atrocities, specifically sexual and gender-based violence. Women and girls are vulnerable to rape whenever they venture out of the IDP camps in search of water or firewood. Despite the fact that in many cases, the survivors of gender-based violence can identify their attackers, justice has been denied. Now, the recent decision by the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) may offer the only hope for many women and girls in Darfur to see justice done.

Lack of access to justice – a denial of women’s rights in Darfur

Sexual and gender based violence is one of the biggest violations of women’s rights in Darfur. Women’s rights continue to be violated due to gender-based discrimination in the national laws of Sudan. According to Jane Lindrio Alao, a psychologist with the Amel Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture based in Darfur, rape is not recognized as a crime in the law. Most people accused of rape are only charged with having committed assault, which is a lesser charge that can lead to a one year jail sentence. Under the law, rape can only be said to have occurred and admitted in court if there are 4 witnesses. “All the witnesses should witness the actual penetration. This means that if there were only 2 witnesses, the accused would not be charged. How many women have the luxury of having witnesses to rape?” says Ms. Alao.

The archaic and discriminatory laws have led to perpetrators of violence acting with impunity. According to Ms. Alao, the majority of the perpetrators are allegedly affiliated directly or indirectly with the government, such as the Popular Defence Forces and the Janjaweed militia. The Sudanese national courts are also affiliated to the government party and have therefore failed to provide justice to the people of Darfur. Women and other members of the community who dare to take rape cases to court are arrested and accused of waging war on the government.

The situation is compounded by the fact that the majority of civil society organizations in Sudan are pro-government and therefore do not acknowledge rape and other human rights violations occurring in Darfur. “Amel centre is the only NGO providing legal aid for victims to seek redress and justice for crimes committed. Most of the other local NGOs deal with sanitation and humanitarian efforts,” says Ms. Alao.

The Darfur Consortium: African civil Society advocacy on Darfur

Previously, most high profile responses to the situation in Darfur had come from NGOs and governments outside Africa. The AU has now taken a more active role and brokered several ceasefire agreements and has troops on the ground in Darfur attempting to monitor these agreements. However, there was still a large gap in terms of African civil society finding an African solution to the Darfur crisis.

To fill this gap, the Darfur Consortium was created in September 2004 in Pretoria, South Africa on the same occasion that the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights held its third extraordinary session dedicated to examining the situation in Darfur. The Darfur Consortium is a network of Africa-based and Africa-focused CSOs that hopes to reflect the unique perspective of African civil society and provide a forum for unified action, particularly through sustained engagement with the institutions of the AU. The Consortium brings together more than 200 African CSOs.

At a meeting in Kampala in February 2005, the Darfur Consortium embarked on a campaign to support the International Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation that the situation in Darfur be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for further investigation. The Commission argued that the Sudanese justice system had shown itself unwilling or unable to prosecute offenders. The Darfur Consortium engaged in an intense advocacy and lobbying campaign with members of the United Nations Security Council on the Commission’s recommendation. On March 31, 2005, the Security Council approved UN Security Council Resolution 1593/2005 granting the ICC jurisdiction to investigate ongoing atrocities in Darfur. Although some members of the Security Council such as Algeria, Nigeria and the United States, felt that an African tribunal would be the most appropriate mechanism, the Darfur Consortium argued that the ICC was both an African and an international mechanism. According to Dr. Yitiha Simbeye, a member of the Consortium and Dean at the Faculty of Law in Makumira University, Tanzania, the Consortium also supported the referral to the ICC because it is a permanent court and this would therefore save on time and resources required to set up a new one. “The ICC referral and present jurisdiction also signals to the Darfurians that the whole world is concerned with the situation in Darfur,” says Dr. Yitiha.

The International Criminal Court: Justice for women in Darfur

The ICC is the first permanent, independent court capable of investigating and bringing to justice individuals who commit the most serious violations of international humanitarian law, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The Court has its seat in The Hague, in the Netherlands and was established in accordance with the Rome Statute on 1 July 2002. The ICC website indicates that by May 2005, 99 countries had ratified the Rome Statute, out of which 27 are African States.

Sudan is not a State party to the ICC treaty. However, the ICC has jurisdiction over non-State parties in instances where that country accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction on an ad hoc basis or, as in the case of Sudan, the UN Security Council referred the situation to the Court.

Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations that deals primarily with disputes between States, the ICC has jurisdiction over matters involving individual criminal responsibility. The Rome Statute also identifies crimes of sexual violence such as rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution and forced pregnancy as crimes against humanity when they are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. The ICC has created a Victims and Witnesses Unit within the Registry to provide protective measures, security arrangements, counseling and other assistance for witnesses and victims. The ICC therefore offers an alternative avenue for justice for the women and girls who comprise almost 90% of the victims of the Darfur conflict.

Although the ICC does have its limitations, including the fact that it requires national government cooperation, both the Darfurians and the Darfur Consortium have high hopes in it. For the Darfur Consortium, their advocacy strategy will now move from advocating for referral to the ICC to pushing for ICC cooperation by the Government of Sudan, monitoring the GoS to prevent it from attempting to circumvent the ICC process and giving CSO support to the ICC prosecutor in the investigation process.

Although some CSOs and traditional leaders in countries such as Uganda have been against the Government of Uganda’s referral of the Northern Uganda conflict to the ICC citing it as a possible deterrent to peace efforts in the area, the Darfur Consortium feels that the ICC is important for the peace process in Sudan. “I believe the long-term disenfranchisement of victims can in itself negatively affect the peace process. Penal measures against perpetrators give victims confidence,” argues Dr. Yitiha.

For the women’s movement in Darfur, what they are looking for is fair trials and compensation of the victims of sexual violence. “IDPs are keeping silent and protecting themselves, waiting for the day of the ICC,” says Ms. Alao.

*Christine Butegwa is Communications Officer with the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

* Please send comments to [email protected]
-------------------

Members of the Darfur Consortium include:

African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies; African NGO Refugee Protection Network; African Society of International and Comparative Law; African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET); Alliances for Africa; Anti-slavery International; Arab Program for Human Rights Studies (APHRA); Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS); Centre for Research Education and Development of Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights; Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre; Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR); Femmes Africa Solidarite; Human Rights Centre, University of Pretoria; Human Rights Institute of South Africa (HURISA); Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa; Inter-African Union for Human Rights (UIDH); Interights; International Commission of Jurists; International Refugee Rights Initiative; Justice Africa; Justice Initiative; Justice and Peace Commission; Lawyers for Human Rights; Legal Resources Consortium-Nigeria; Ligue Tunisienne pour la Defense des Droits de l’Homme; Makurima University College, Tumaini University; Minority Rights Group; Open Society Justice Initiative; Pan-African Movement; Recontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), Sudan Organisation Against Torture, Sudanese Refugee Association in South Africa; WARIPNET; World Organisation Against Torture.

For more information on the Darfur Consortium, please contact:

The Darfur Consortium,
Box 7785, Kampala, Uganda:
Tel: +1-646 546 7152 (New York);
Email: [email protected];
URL: www.darfurconsortium.org

Dismas Nkunda,
International Refugee Rights Initiative
[email protected]

For more information about the International Criminal Court, contact:

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court
708 3rd Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10017, USA
ph: 1-212-687-2863
fax: 1-212-599-1332
url: http://www.iccnow.org

This policy brief explores the reform needed of social institutions and cultural practices to enhance qender equality. The paper argues that gender equality is good for growth, economic development and poverty reduction, and identifies the following reasons for the persistence of gender discriminating cultural practises and social norms: the “legitimacy” of reform is often contested.

With the general elections in sight at the end of 2007, the feeling of de ja vu is difficult to shake off, considering that the country has been in political campaigns mode for nearly two years. “Women are not well represented at all levels of leadership positions and their representation especially at the local authorities' level is wanting,” explains Deborah Okumu, a Senior Programmes Officer at the Kenya Women's Political Caucus (KWPC). She notes that the absence of formal mechanisms of both accountability and participation within the political systems restricts access for women.

Written and produced in collaboration with partners, Cutting Edge Packs from Bridge provide accessible overviews of the latest thinking on a gender theme and summaries of the most useful resources. Each pack includes an Overview Report, a Supporting Resources Collection and a copy of Gender and Development In Brief.

South African Women in Dialogue is taking the initiative of "bringing the ideas of African presidents" to the people as part of the African Union's Peer Review Mechanism, a self assessment process now underway in South Africa. The president of the Pan African Parliament, Gertrude Mongella, has asked First Lady, Zanele Mbeki, if she would assist in launching a formation similar to SAWID in other African countries.

This report presents national sex disaggregated statistics in such areas as demographics, health, education, work, violence against women, poverty, human rights and decision-making. The report reviews and analyses the current availability of data and assesses progress made in the provision of national statistics, as opposed to internationally prepared estimates, relevant to gender concerns during the past 30 years. It proposes a set of strategies to strengthen national capacity to collect and report statistics and also for improved mainstreaming of gender concerns.

This book brings together a comprehensive list of the facts and figures regarding violence against women in daily life, during war and conflict and in post-conflict situations. The authors map the pervasiveness of violence against women, analyse strategies to prevent and punish that violence and highlight the key role that women play in initiatives to counter violence. The document argues that violence against women must be recognised as a key issue in its own right, as one of the significant causes of death on our planet - comparable in importance only to war, hunger and disease.

A recent study and several well-publicised cases of gender violence have raised concern in Malawi, with the president and aid agencies calling for urgent action to address the problem.A survey commissioned by the NGO, ActionAid, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and humanitarian partners, covering over a thousand school-age girls, found that more than half had experienced some form of sexual abuse in schools in Malawi. Urgent measures to curb violence against girls both at home and in schools were recommended.

Located 17 kilometers outside of Nyala, Kalma camp is also one of Darfur’s largest, with nearly 90,000 inhabitants. Most have lived there for nearly two years, fleeing the fighting between rebel groups and government-sponsored Janjaweed militias. There is no Sudanese government presence or police in Kalma camp. After the government police attempted to arrest one of the sheikhs, the angry population chased the police and the government camp managers out, burning down their offices. In retaliation, the Sudanese government has cracked down hard on Kalma, blocking all commercial trade to the camp for months. Recently, the African Union set up a police station inside the camp, bringing some modicum of security.

It is women who bear the brunt of the effects of trade liberalization on social development through a lack of access to basic social services. But, writes Jennifer Chiriga from the Alternative Information and Development Centre, one of the major impacts of trade on women is how the capitalist ethic plays into building masculinity while at the same time playing down the role that women play in society. Alternatives are in the offing, she argues.

The defining trends of current trade and economic relations across the globe and the process through which current international economic relations are played out, and markets for products and services are increasingly being defined, all fall under the rubric of globalisation.

International trade expansion has in the last few decades been manifesting a profound transformation, with the emergence of integration of economic activity, including elimination of restrictions on the free movement across borders of capital, goods, resources, technology and services. All regions of the world are coming closer together through intensified trade, investment, financial transactions, and information technology. Unfortunately the global expansion has not affected developing regions evenly, and Africa continues to lag behind.

The main feature of globalisation is a surge in the power of global capital and reorganizing of global production through multi-national corporations that wield tremendous influence over economies. Globalisation has been quite aptly cited as “largely the game of the powerful…the strong do what they will, and the weak must surrender what they cannot protect” (Tandon, cited in Vale and Maseko, 1998).

Other defining characteristics of globalisation are a more integrated global economy with interdependencies among nations, but the benefits of which accrue to developed economies; decline in investment in production, with companies moving more towards speculative investment, which brings faster and higher profits; diminishing public sector, with the state becoming more business oriented through privatisation of state enterprises, and the phenomenal power of multinational corporations that have the clout to drive global trade and influence governments, as seen by the power of the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The WTO is not just about trade, it is about power and control of resources. Developed countries shape and control the trade regimes that affect developing countries and that lead to de-industrialisation, job losses and worsening of poverty. This is evidenced by the experience of developing countries that are undergoing IMF/World Bank enforced trade through neo-liberal structural adjustment programmes, who have been forced to liberalise their external trade, and have subsequently suffered destruction of local industries leading to massive retrenchments.

In spite of the conventional understanding about the creation of an “open” global free trade system, there is very limited “free trade”, particularly for African countries. The relevance of the WTO in the world system is that it is seen as the central institution in a centralised global economy. This has major relevance for African countries as they grapple with huge development challenges. The external orientation of African countries has led to opening up of global markets, resulting in flooding of imports and domination of foreign products e.g. agricultural produce and textiles to name a few, and this has led to massive loss of jobs in rural and urban sectors, threats to food security and abandonment of the social development project. The effects of trade liberalisation on social development is evidenced by lack of access to basic social services, a scenario in which women bear the greater burden.

Gender and trade

One of the major factors in gender inequality relates to how negative perceptions mould gender differences and how the capitalist ethic plays into building masculinity while at the same time playing down the role that women play in society where they occupy the role of secondary earners. Gender is a key determinant of vulnerability to poverty. And women, due to their disadvantaged position in the labour market, hold lower paid jobs, which require lower level of skills etc.

Although gender analysts have for a long time emphasised the negative impacts of trade liberalisation, the link between gender and trade has been tenuous, largely because perhaps gender considerations have been perceived as irrelevant and having no place at the negotiation table where trade issues are discussed. Looked at through a gender prism, trade policies have grave implications for development and well-being of women, due to impact on employment, poverty and the social burden carried by women. Although women are an important and significant constituency, trade policy in the WTO is formulated with no evidence of a gender perspective.

A study on policy links between gender and trade (Informal Working Group on Gender and Trade, 1998) emerged with a number of “reality points” that link gender and trade, and make a case for the importance of putting gender analysis at the center of trade policy:

a) Changes in social service delivery affect women to a greater extent

Trade policies and trade liberalisation can affect the ability of governments to finance social sector expenditure. The observation is that any revenue shortfalls leading to reduction of government expenditure affects social service delivery, and the burden is shifted to the households and women. The study states that in 1993 women contributed over US$11 trillion worth of household work to the world economy, and that trade policy should therefore not ignore women’s unwaged work in social reproduction. Gender planning should be built into the design of trade policies. A very important point made is that social development should be the bedrock of trade policy since women’s traditional roles do not make it easy for them to access opportunities to engage in international trade.

b) Entrenched gender inequalities in the labour market are unfavourable to women

The labour market tends to be segmented on gender lines with inequalities in income, career advancement and conditions of work. Traditionally expansion of trade is based on access to low wage labour, which is mainly female labour. Liberalisation of trade and the surge of foreign capital and transnational corporations, maintain competitiveness through minimising costs of production, especially labour costs. While one can generalise the negative effects on the labour market, for women the impact is higher – they have lower wages and less bargaining power because unions tend to be dominated by male leadership. The danger of trade liberalisation bringing more hardship for women is very real – because sub-contracting and flexible work allows corporations to avoid direct financial responsibility for workers.

c) Women have lesser access to economic resources: credit, skills, technical assistance

Institutionalised discrimination affects women’s access to land and credit from financial institutions, and therefore impacts in a very fundamental way on their role in the economy. When trade barriers are reduced and an infusion of cheaper imports come into the market, women may lose out especially when quality control becomes an issue and introduces lack of competitiveness.

One of the major gaps is that while WTO rules encompass all levels of economic development, there is no gender analysis that assesses these rules in a structured way. While there is a ready source of scientific research documenting the realities of women’s lives and how the economy impacts on them, the conceptual and policy links between gender and trade have to be given more attention and attempts to generate further analysis on the link between gender and trade policy, should raise the following questions:

- Are trade policies geared towards elimination of poverty and gender inequality?

- Do trade rules prevent government and private business from formulating gender-sensitive policies;

- Are trade policies based on competition, which ignores reproductive tasks i.e. reinforcing the masculine model of superiority.

Even as we grapple with the specific gender dimensions, trade policy should not be approached in isolation of macro level economic policy. In this context, the discussion on alternatives raises very broad issues.

Alternative strategies for development

Change is possible through a break from the mainstream model of dominant global capital. The emergence of national, regional and international forums such as the Africa Social Forum (ASF) and World Social Forum (WSF) is a sign that there is an increasing trend of organisations and social movements mobilising to reflect and exchange ideas on alternative visions and actions. The WSF was conceived as a response to the growing struggle against neo-liberalism and an alternative to the World Economic Forum where business leaders from all over the world get together to discuss the economic state of the world, and is an arena of debate, as well as an opportunity for social movements and activists from the north and south to meet and exchange ideas.

There is already a powerful discourse, which is however being undermined by concentration of wealth and anti-democratic power of powerful global corporations. Nevertheless, emergence of regionalism as an alternative, is gaining ground as a possible solution to the dislocation of Africa’s economic potential.

The questions to pose in any deliberations on alternatives are:

- how to engender the political will necessary for the regional project;

- how the geo-political concept of regionalism can be harnessed to engage and challenge the globalised system on a stronger footing;

- how Africa can turn regional integration and cooperation groupings into real frameworks for alternative models of development.

Africa already has some examples of a unique regional integration model that have roots in pan African solidarity. There is potential for strengthened regional blocs to encompass development needs of emerging economies. Regional integration has the potential to break the leverage that industrial countries have over Africa, whose governments need to realise that engaging the local with the regional and continental is the future in terms of economic development.

In response to the questions raised above, one of the key considerations is that social mobilisation of strong social movements and organisations can provide the pressure and impetus that will eventually cause a shift in the global balance of power. Social movements should be the foundation of a people-based process that promotes developmental regionalism, centred on human rights, women’s rights and social justice. Commitment should be to a unified region in which local and community-based development is the primary underpinning of national and regional development programmes.

Through strategic interdependencies we need to redirect trade to domestic and regional spaces, increase manufacturing and production and add value to our primary products. In addition the liberalisation and privatisation policies should be replaced and we should create trade and development cooperation agreements which reflect the realities and needs of the people, and which are not pre-determined or constricted by compliance with WTO terms and conditionalities.

Cooperative development would ensure, for example, that shared resources like energy, water etc, could be approached holistically for the benefit of the whole region. But as long as powerful economies like South Africa continue following a sub-imperialist agenda, it will be a lost battle. African governments must cooperate, coordinate and combine. As someone said at a workshop recently, “extroverted economies will get us nowhere".

* Jennifer Chiriga is Unit Coordinator, Globalisation and Alternatives Unit, Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), Cape Town

* Please send comments to

Article traduit de l’anglais par Frances Chevalier et Kesini Murugesan, de l’Université du Cap, Afrique du Sud.

Very warm greetings to you all from the Chairperson, H.E. Professor Alpha Oumar Konare, Commissioners and officials of the Commission of the African Union. I also bring my special greetings and compliments to you all - Members of the Solidarity for Women’s Rights Coalition and Ahfad University for Women here present, and the Government and people of The Sudan. I would like to start by expressing my delight and pleasure to be in Khartoum once again, this historic and beautiful city of your great country, The Sudan. Let me also register my deep gratitude and sincere appreciation for the singular honour and privilege accorded to me to deliver a keynote address at the opening session of this Symposium on the African Union’s Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa, with a focus on the relevance of the Protocol for the Continent and its peoples.

Women are discriminated against in many ways but if a woman is also a member of a minority or indigenous community, she faces multiple disadvantages. Despite some efforts, neither gender equality nor minority and indigenous rights are integral to international law or human rights. Ignoring this discrimination leads to a failure in recognising the many ways women are ill-treated. A report from the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) examines how factors such as gender, minority and indigenous status combine to affect women. The MRG encourages those working on minority and indigenous peoples’ rights to include gender issues. It also urges those working on gender equality and women's rights to include minorities and indigenous peoples within their remit.

A three-decade law banning pregnant girls from attending school has been scrapped by MPs in Zanzibar. Under the ban, girls under 18 who became pregnant on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian islands had to drop out of school and could not return. Women's groups had been campaigning to abolish the law saying it infringed on the girls' human rights. The BBC's Ally Saleh in Zanzibar says it has been hailed as a landmark for the predominantly Muslim archipelago.