A gay Ugandan man has been denied a visa to enter Britain because there is a warrant for his arrest in his home country - a warrant that was issued because he is gay. Chris Stentaza had been invited to the UK by the Church of England.  Stentaza had been a teacher at an Anglican run school in Uganda but was fired and forced to go into hiding after speaking at a conference of gay Christians in Manchester 15 months ago. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, punishable by lengthy prison terms. Stentaza was rejected for a visa by the British high commission in the Ugandan capital of Kampala based only on the fact that a warrant had been issued on charges of "crimes against nature". 

A number of African countries adopted and formulated structural adjustment policies with the assumption that the effects would be gender-neutral.  An analysis of the trends and results of the policies shows that the impact of market liberalisation has had different results on men and women. African women have been the hardest hit by economic policies and market liberalisation as these policies have further entrenched gender inequality. The joint report by the African Labour and Research Network (ALRN) examines society and gender, gender and employment distribution, trends in liberalisation of the economy and the labour market, child labour, and labour legislation per country. Countries in the publication include Namibia, South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Nigeria.

A pregnant woman is more likely to die giving birth in Sierra Leone than in any other country in the world. Health experts blame a shortage of medical staff equipped to deal with complications that can occur during labour, as well as the financial and logistical impracticalities of getting from home to a hospital. In this West African country struggling to emerge from a decade-long civil war, mothers die in 1,800 of every 100,000 live births, according to the 2005 global report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Human rights violations against women and children will continue to increase, particularly in conflict-ridden areas of Africa, unless the international community steps up its efforts to combat gender-based violence (GBV), according to UN officials. “There is no shortage of people willing to work for the cause,” Maha Muna, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Programme Manager for Governance, Peace and Security, told IRIN. “What is needed to address the escalating problem of GBV are more resources.”

This year's theme for CODESRIA's Gender Institute will be Masculinities in Contemporary Africa. The theme of masculinities has recently begun to enjoy a revival in the social sciences, most often tied to discourses around identity politics, the all-pervasive youth involvement in armed conflicts, the macho culture which the environment of armed conflicts and urban violence has spurned, the global spread of an American/Americanised urban youth culture, and the social consequences of economic crises and structural adjustment The Gender Institute will also be selecting Directors for every session, external scholars, resource persons and Laureates to help in the proceedings. The deadline for the submission of applications is set for 17 May, 2005. Applications should be sent to: The CODESRIA Gender Institute, Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV, B.P. 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL. Tel. (221) 825 98 21/22/23 Fax : (221) 824 12 89

For International Action Against Female Genital Mutilation, a German group active in Benin and other African countries, 2005 will be a year in which past successes in the fight against mutilation are celebrated – and efforts to eradicate it continue with renewed vigour. A ‘No More Excisions’ festival is planned for Benin in April. President Mathieu Kerekou, who first suggested 2005 as a deadline for rooting out female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country, is expected to attend this event.

"My excitement upon arriving at a large weekend workshop of the Anti-Privatization Forum (APF) in South Africa and seeing a room filled with community activists, more than half of whom were women, was abated as the workshop progressed and I realized that most of the women were not participating. It was men’s voices that overwhelmingly dominated the comments from the floor. Of the women who did participate, it was primarily women with lighter skin, for whom English is their primary language," writes Dawn Paley, an intern with Alternatives, currently living in Johannesburg, South Africa. "This experience has led me to question how is it that Black women can make up the bulk of the membership of the movements against neo-liberal policies and be so marginalized in the functioning of these organizations?," she writes in this commentary for www.zmag.org

The Africa Social Forum (ASF), held from 10 to 14 December, 2004 in Lusaka, Zambia, brought together different social movements, civil society organisations, community based organisations, academics, activists and individuals who believe in the future of Africa. Some of the main topics discussed included globalisation, neo-liberalism and resistance to capitalism. As part of this forum, the ASF conducted an African Court of Women's lives and livelihoods. The purpose of the Court was to encourage women from different backgrounds to share their stories and suggest possible solutions to improving developmental, judicial and educational programs in order to mainstream the gender perspective. The African Court provided women with an accessible venue to use testimony, song, dance, lecture, poetry, discussion and analysis to understand the repercussions that globalisation has had on their personal and political lives.

Senegal's homosexual men are peeping out from behind the mask, but social and religious taboos run strong. "We are always pretending," said one of a couple of the leaders of the country's underground movement who had agreed to come out of the woodwork to talk to PlusNews on condition of anonymity. "Sometimes we feel sick of the lies."

The International Women's Media Foundation publishes a newsletter to keep women journalists informed internationally. If you would like to subscribe, send a blank email to [email protected]

This paper examines the roles of women in natural resource conservation in Kenya, identifying the major research gaps. The author argues that conservation efforts will only succeed if government and non-governmental conservation bodies target rural women. The paper argues that gender roles in Kenya put women in direct contact with natural resources such as forests, water, land and wildlife, and that women utilize and conserve these resources to supply basic needs for their families.

Publisher: Femrite

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When Frieda’s husband came home drunk and she was unable to provide him with the money he demanded, he went to the bedroom and came out swinging a panga.

“I have no money, please I have no money. You know I can’t have any,” Frieda begged. She escaped from the house and went to hide behind a tree, to which a goat was tied. Her husband, in a rage, swung the panga and split open the head of the goat, killing it instantly.

Frieda knew that the blow was meant for her. She knew that if she stayed with her husband any longer it would only be a matter of time before either her or her children were killed.

The decision to leave was the end of 14 years of constant battery. The odds were stacked against her – she returned to her parents, but received no support for the children from her husband. He began selling off possessions and property they had acquired during the marriage, but her attempts to access these resources where thwarted by a corrupt beurocracy heavily weighted in favour of her husband.

After a long struggle, she found out about a legal aid clinic that supported women in claims about land and property conflicts, domestic violence, rape and other abuses. The legal aid clinic helped her to achieve limited justice – her husband is prevented from selling their property – but she is still on the back foot in a society where the odds are stacked against her.

Frieda’s story is typical of the collection of short stories in ‘Tears of Hope: A collection of Short Stories by Ugandan Rural Women’. The eight short stories reflect the situation of African rural women in an overwhelmingly male dominated society. These are stories about the lived experience of women that demonstrate their suffering, pain and humiliation, but also show the enormous inner strength, courage and fortitude of women.

Each story is a window on the discrimination that women face. In ‘Where do I belong?’ we are shown that women are valued for the offspring that they produce and that that offspring had better be male.

‘Frieda’s World’ follows on this theme. Women are seen and chosen for their potential fertility and their ability to work hard and increase the wealth of their husbands. Women are seen to be nothing more than a bundle of flesh to be beaten into submission, even through they are more often than not the producer of food and nurturer of children.

Many of the stories, told in the first person, are extremely moving. In ‘Maria demands her share’, Maria describes her husband coming home form work some time in 1994, extremely worried. The setting is Rwanda and as her husband notifies her, it is time to flee because the situation has reached a stage where their lives are in danger. They lose everything and join a mass of humanity running for their lives. Maria’s husband is subsequently murdered by her own brother, who uses the confusion to settle an old family score related to Maria’s bride price. From that stage on, Maria’s life becomes a constant struggle for dignity.

The system of male domination breeds selfishness and oppression, not only from the male members of society, but also from women eager to hold on to whatever tentative positions they have established for themselves within the hierarchy. In that hierarchy, women can only exist by belonging to someone, by being a possession. Breaking out of that structure to go it alone is a hard road fraught with difficulties. So, for example, if a women finds herself in a situation of domestic violence she must not expect the authorities to take action. The only way to escape is to leave her husband, following which she will stigmatised for not being able to make her marriage work and face immense pressure to return to her situation of abuse.

Each story involves the main character finding out about and accessing her rights, and even though these laws might be limited in the protection they offer, they do more often than not offer some respite.

But the stories also show that standing up for these rights and using the law to fight their oppression is only half of the battle. In this sense it is not only about accessing rights within the framework of the law, it is also about confronting a hostile society who, even when the law is against them, do everything within their power to make sure that women are deprived and disempowered. If, however, the violence that the characters in these stories suffer at the hands of their spouses is relentless, so is the determination and courage of the women to make sure that their rights are enforced. This is the real inspiration of this collection of short stories: It is through the courage of women like the eight represented in these stories that society is forced to make shifts, forced to change.

Reviewed by Patrick Burnett, Fahamu

* For orders, please contact African Books Collective.

1. 600,000 women - one every minute - die each year from pregnancy-related causes.*

2. In the Global South, women traditionally eat less and do not get more food during pregnancy.*

3. 90% of the rural female labour force get classified as "housewives".*

4. Women produce nearly 80% of the food on the planet, but receive less than 10% of agricultural assistance.*

5. 75% of the refugees and internally displaced in the world are women.*

6. In Ethiopia and Nigeria almost 50 % of the maternal deaths result from complications due to abortion.**

7. In Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe the level of unwanted pregnancies among adolescent girls is 50% or more.**

8. In several African countries, up to 70% of women treated for abortion complications are younger than 20. **

9. In Uganda 49% of surveyed schoolgirls who responded that they were sexually active said they had been coerced to have sex.**

10. In North Sudan, 89% of women have undergone infibulation, the most severe type of female genital mutilation (FGM).**

SOURCES:

* Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) is an international, non-governmental organization (NGO) that empowers women and girls in the Global South to re-imagine and re-structure their roles in their families, communities, and societies.
http://www.learningpartnership.org/facts/human.phtml

** AMANITARE, which evolved from the need for a coordinated Pan-African effort to consolidate the skills, knowledge and institutional resources of groups and individuals active in the field of sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and women's rights.
http://www.amanitare.org/home2.html

Namibia recently became the fourth country on the continent to ratify the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. What meanings does this document, as well as the other international instruments signed by our government have for girls and women in the diverse communities of Namibia?

During 2004, Sister Namibia held three-day workshops on women's human rights in Lüderitz, Karasburg, Nyangana, Katima Mulilo, Okakarara and Tsumkwe, using the AU Protocol as a main tool. In all these locations, workshop participants were amazed to learn about the broad range of human rights they are entitled to as full citizens of this county and this continent, and reported grave violations of these rights in many areas of their lives.

Let's take a closer look at the situation of women in Tsumkwe in eastern Namibia, home of many San people, who are the impoverished and marginalised indigenous people of our country. Forty women attended the workshop, young and old. Nineteen of them had infants or small children with them, and five more were pregnant. All the women said that it was the first time they ever attended such a workshop, and expressed the belief that rights were something only accorded to people living in towns.

Following a role play by the facilitators on the different forms of domestic violence, the participants said that such incidences were an everyday occurrence in their lives, but that they had not realised that this was a violation of their rights. However, to apply for a protection order under the Domestic Violence Act of 2003, they would have to find transport to travel 275 kilometres to the nearest magistrate's court at Grootfontein. And as magistrates have not yet received training on the Act, it could happen that women applying for a protection order are simply sent home again.

The information on the new Maintenance Act was also new to the women in Tsumkwe, and they stated that because there are no social workers in Tsumkwe there was no-one to assist them with accessing their social rights. Lack of access to education was also discussed as a major violation of the rights of San girls, many of whom marry and start having children soon after beginning their menstruation. “We don't know about reproductive and sexual rights,” said one of the participants. “We as women don't talk about this to our husbands because it is very sensitive. Normally we give birth to babies every year. In our culture our little girls are getting into early marriages. Soon after a girl child is born, an old man visits the mother and says that this little girl will be his future wife. He will start supporting her until she reaches her first menstruation and then marry her.” Information and training on the Married Person's Equality Act of 1996 has thus not yet reached the girls and women of Tsumkwe.

Poverty was the other main reason given for the lack of access to education. Children living on farms and in villages in the surrounding areas need transport to and from the secondary school in Tsumkwe, and parents are not aware that school fees and uniforms can be waived. Schools and school hostels are also places of discrimination and abuse and are thus experienced as not safe places for the girls. Participants requested in particular more information on their reproductive health and rights. “We really do not know how to protect ourselves from sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/Aids, and also unwanted pregnancies.”

Sister Namibia will intensify our work in this area in 2005, and plan how to reach out to more San women and girls, as well as women in other communities across the country. Our aim is to develop a sense of entitlement among women of all their rights currently existing only on paper, and develop lobbying and advocacy skills among girls and women so that they can begin to stand up for their rights.

* Liz Frank is the director of Sister Namibia

* Please send comments to

Women’s right to equal ownership of and access to property is of vital importance in securing women’s equality. But as Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere once said: “Women of Africa toil all their lives on land that they do not own, to produce what they do not control and at the end of the marriage through divorce or death, they can be sent away empty handed.”

The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Protocol) offers potential solutions to these long-standing problems. To date, nine more countries must ratify the Protocol in order to bring it into force. Enforcement of the Protocol is vitally important to reforming and better protecting women’s property rights.

If women had equal access to and control over land, it would not just benefit them individually, but their countries as a whole. As the Honorable Winnie Byanyima, Member of Parliament from Uganda has said: "When women own and control land, there will be more food in each household and more crops for export since most farm work is done by them.” This statement is reinforced by studies undertaken by the Ugandan authorities themselves, which have shown that denying women equal access to land robs the whole country of progress in development. The same is true of other countries.

The Protocol on the Rights of Women Applied

The Protocol sets out a broad range of rights for African women, including protections for economic independence, the right to own and manage land, and the right to be equal partners in making decisions about property, regardless of marital status. These provisions would need to be domesticated into the national laws of each country that ratifies the Protocol to ensure that they are translated into reality. Some of the relevant provisions of the Protocol include:

- Article 2 states that governments “shall combat all forms of discrimination against women through appropriate legislative, institutional and other measures”. Article 2 (1)(d) elaborates on this by creating a duty on states to “take corrective and positive action in those areas where discrimination against women in law and in fact continues to exist”.

- Article 6(j) states, “during her marriage, a woman shall have the right to acquire her own property and to administer and manage it freely.”

- Article 7 states that governments should enact legislation to ensure that women and men enjoy the same rights in case of separation, divorce or annulment of marriage and, more particularly “in case of separation, divorce or annulment of marriage, women and men shall have the right to an equitable sharing of the joint property deriving from the marriage”. When domesticating these provisions, governments should reflect the true intent of the Protocol, which might mean also measuring a women’s contribution to the household in more than mere monetary terms in accordance also with Article 13(h) of the Protocol as highlighted below.

- Women’s property rights are also protected through the Protocol’s protections of economic development. Article 13(e) obliges the state to “create conditions to promote and support the occupations and economic activities of women, in particular, within the informal sector.” Article 13 (h) strengthens this protection by creating an obligation to “take the necessary measures to recognise the economic value of the work of women in the home.”

- Article 16 (Right to Adequate Housing) provides that “[t]o ensure this right, States Parties shall grant to women, whatever their marital status, access to adequate housing.”

- Article 18 creates a duty on states to “ensure greater participation of women in the planning, management and preservation of the environment and the sustainable use of natural resources at all levels.”

- Article 19(c), in making guarantees for a sustainable environment, also provides for the promotion of “women's access to and control over productive resources such as land and guarantee their right to property.”

- Article 20 requires governments to “take appropriate legal measures to ensure that widows enjoy all human rights.” Supporting this, Article 21 guarantees widows “the right to an equitable share in the inheritance of the property of her husband”, and “the right to continue to live in the matrimonial house”, even in instances of remarriage if it belongs to her or she has inherited it. Article 21 also accords to women and men “the right to inherit, in equitable shares, their parents' properties”.

Just looking at these few provisions we can see how the Protocol could be a powerful instrument for change. It attempts to tackle many of the crucial issues facing women in Africa, including the critical area of land ownership for all women as well as widows who have been additionally neglected.

The Protocol makes it very clear that custom cannot be used as an excuse to deprive women of their rights and that women have “the right to live in a positive cultural context and to participate at all levels in the determination of cultural policies” (Article 17). This shows very clearly that governments cannot hide behind traditional practices, in whatever sphere, to continue to deny women equal rights with men. The Protocol points the way to individual governments who do not have laws that adequately protect women’s rights and shows them the principles they should be reproducing at the national level. Governments will have an obligation to look at all sources of law in their countries to make sure the rights provided for by the Protocol are respected and protected.

Conclusion

Discrimination of women in property and marriage law will not be easily remedied. The problem is complex: unfair treatment is rooted in national laws and social attitudes, in customary law and in the law imposed by colonial forces. But there is much hope to be seen in the fact that the 53 countries of the African Union did adopt the Protocol and that several countries have already ratified it or are on the way to ratification. We must encourage them to take progressive steps to ensure that the Protocol is not only ratified but implemented for the benefit not just of African women, but for the continent as a whole.

* Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women

* Please send comments to [email protected]

It is women who make up 50 percent or more of the population of most African countries and it is women who face growing responsibility - nearly 50 percent in some countries - for heading their households in the face of discriminatory laws, societal prejudice and sometimes violent oppression.

Yet towards the end of this month an elite circle of men will meet in Abuja, Nigeria with the power to make a significant difference in changing the lives of women on the African continent. The African Union meeting of African leaders in Abuja will consider food security and health. In their discussions, African leaders should be aware of statistics which show that in both these areas, much work needs to be done. For example, in the field of health 600 000 women –many in the developing world – are believed to die from pregnancy-related causes every year. In agriculture, women are believed to produce 80 percent of food on the planet, yet they receive less than 10 percent of agricultural assistance.

The list of statistics is endless – and nearly none of the statistics reflect well on the policies of countries. African leaders should keep in mind that failure to consider the rights of women will lead to failed policies, while the continual oppression of a significant portion of their populations will not contribute to overall development.

When it comes to the rights of women, African leaders have at their disposal an effective mechanism to enforce the rights of women. The African Protocol on the Rights of Women is a comprehensive legal framework to guarantee the rights of women on the African continent. But 15 individual countries need to ratify the Protocol before it can come into force and domestication of its provisions in national laws can begin. So far only seven countries have completed the ratification process – despite the fact that the Protocol was adopted in July 2003.

This edition of Pambazuka News is focused on the rights of women. Most of the articles are about the experience of African women in the areas of food security and sexual and reproductive health rights. They highlight the situation of women and the guarantees that the Protocol will offer to women. There is also information about the campaign by a coalition of civil society organisations - operating under the banner Solidarity for African Women’s Rights - to speed up the ratification and implementation of the Protocol.

The rights contained in the Protocol should not be considered as optional by African leaders. These rights are not trinkets to be handed down from on high. They are not even rights that should have to be fought for. Without them the very right to life is compromised.

Nor is the ratification and domestication of the Protocol an exclusively woman’s affair. It is not a charitable act. The freedom of men is conditional on the freedom of women and therefore both sexes have a vested interest in ensuring that the rights of women are protected and enforced.

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE:

A. Promising health and food security

Political will, political will and political will: This is the essential ingredient to make sure that women are able to access their rights to health and food security, states SAUDATU MAHDI from Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) in Nigeria.

B. Making reproductive health rights a reality

The politics of control must not be allowed to gain prominence over the right of women to choose, argues ANNE GATHUMBI from the Coalition on Violence Against Women.

C. Unlocking women’s right to land

Barriers facing women in their access to land are complex, but the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa does offer hope, says this article from women’s rights organisation EQUALITY NOW.

D. Towards human rights of all women in Namibia

When the women’s rights organization Sister Namibia held workshops using the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women, participants were amazed at the rights to which they were entitled. LIZ FRANK says the work will continue so that women can stand up for their rights.

E. Pambazuka News Background: The right to food, the right to life

Laws governing land, unfair economic policies and an HIV/AIDS epidemic all conspire against food security for women. But securing food security for women is key to unlocking a host of other rights.

F. Pambazuka News Background: The right to health, the right to life

It’s taken decades to build up the international framework that guarantees women’s sexual and reproductive health rights. Now is the time for governments to make those rights realities or face the consequences.

G. Masculinity, Peace Processes, Impunity and Justice

War, with disastrous consequences for women, is the only solution that a masculine-ruled world has to resolve conflicts. Peace processes, writes ANA ELENA OBANDO, are opportunites to imagine a new world.

H. Djibouti is well down the road to ratification of the Maputo Protocol relating to women’s rights in Africa, says ZEINAB ALI KAMIL

Djibouti s’engage vers la voie très prochaine d’une ratification du Protocole de Maputo relatif aux droits des femmes en Afrique

I. What’s happening around the continent?
An update on the campaign for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

J. Signed and sealed, but hard work ahead
A Profile of the seven signatories to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

K. Ten facts and figures on women’s rights

Books And Arts. A review of ‘Tears of Hope: A Collection of Short Stories by Ugandan Rural Women’

In what some may describe as adding insult to injury, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi has appointed just four women to the country’s new 91-member cabinet. This came after only 22 of the 275 seats in parliament were allocated to women. Somalia’s constitution states that 12 percent of all decision-making posts in government should be reserved for women, which means that at least 10 women should have been appointed to cabinet, and 33 women to parliament.

The 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place in New York from 28 February - 11 March 2005. The Commission will be focusing on two thematic issues as outlined in its multi-year programme of work: A review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century"; and Current challenges and forward looking strategies for the advancement and empowerment of women and girls.

Women are yet to find their bearing in the decision making process of Ghana. Women constitute more than 50 per cent of the 21.5 million population of the country but their share of political and public office appointments is a miserly eight per cent. And this is in spite of years of continuous public education by a host of non- governmental organizations and women groups.

Why is it that almost a decade after ratifying and acceding the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action, after the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, engendering processes of the Millennium Development Goals, Maputo Declaration on Gender Mainstreaming , SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and various other treaties and conventions, southern African countries continue to battle with: gender power imbalances, gender based violence, gender based stigma and discrimination, feminization of poverty and ultimately feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic?