http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/379/48635tank.jpgWhat does gender have to do with issues of sanitation and water? Roselyenn Musa gives us a multi-faceted gender perspectives that consider the role of African governments, gender awareness and water privatization amongst others.
====

INTRODUCTION

The upcoming mid-year African Union (AU) summit of heads of state and government has as its primary agenda as ‘Water and Sanitation.’ Development goals in the water and sanitation sector in Africa typically address issues of access to and the availability of adequate and safe supply and services, health and well being of all members of the society. At the Millennium Summit in 2000, Heads of State pledged to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water by the year 2015 yet at the end of 2002 some 1.1 billion people or 18% of the world’s population lacked access to safe drinking water, while 2.6 billion or 40 % of the world’s population lacked access to improved sanitation services.

Gender issues are applicable when conditions are bone dry and also when they are dangerously wet. Women and children are the first to suffer from the disruption of water supply and the provision of sanitation services. They are disproportionately affected by natural and ‘man made’ disasters as a result of gender inequalities. They play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water and sanitation, but the pivotal role they play as providers and users of water and has seldom been reflected in institutional arrangements for the development and management of these resources.

This essay considers the concept of gender in the context of water supply, sanitation and hygiene development. It recalls the commitments of African governments to gender in the broader framework of international instruments. It then analyses why gender is central to water and sanitation and the implications of water privatization. It concludes with some suggestions to meet the challenge of enabling change, recommending gender awareness as one o the keys to sustainable development in water and sanitation.

DEFINING GENDER AND CONTEXT

For the purpose of this paper the term ‘gender’ describes the social relations between and characteristics of women and men. It concerns men’s and women’s participation in the determination of their lives including access to rights, power and control over resources. In most African countries men’s and women’s gender roles determine their access to, power and control over adequate water supply and sanitation services. Locating Water and Sanitation In International Gender Equality Instruments The United Nations Decade for Women and Development’s (1976-1985) themes of equality, development and peace signaled the way for international debate that encompassed the broad spectrum of development issues.

The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW, 1981) proved to be a major step forward in fostering debate and setting international standards of gender equality. Article 14 (2) calls on states to take account of particular problems faced by women and the significant role that they play in the economic survival of families. It calls for measures to eliminate discrimination against women and ensuring women’s right to enjoy adequate living conditions with respect to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply. The United Nations 4th World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995) also calls on governments to ensure that women’s priorities are included in public investment programmes for economic infrastructure such as water and sanitation, electrification etc.

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of women in Africa in Articles 2 and 15 enjoins governments to provide women with access to clean drinking water, enact and effectively implement appropriate legislative or regulatory measures, including those prohibiting and curbing all forms of discrimination particularly regarding those harmful practices which endanger the health and general well-being of women. It is depressing to note that most African countries’ commitments to these instruments remain only on paper.

GENDER ISSUES IN WATER SUPPLY

In developing countries some 3 billion people do not have basic access to a tap. Women and very often young girls are primarily burdened with the responsibility of fetching water for household use, transport, store and use it for cooking, cleaning, washing, and watering household animals. Men are rarely expected to perform such tasks. Yet all too often decisions about the design and location of water facilities are made without the involvement of the female users, who have most at stake in this regard.

Women and girls spending up to 6-8 hours a day collecting water can consume up to a third of daily caloric intake often bringing back a mere 15 to 20 litres which has to cover the needs of a whole family leading to rationing water in the household. Many infectious diseases are associated with poor water quality.

Carrying this heavy load consumes much of their energy (requiring 600 to 800 calories of food per day). This chore often deprives girls of time to attend school or mothers a job. It presents a health hazard, especially during development and pregnancy periods. They face the risk of drowning if the water source is a river and injuries from attacks during conflicts. With closer water comes less danger, greater self-esteem, less harassment of women and better school attendance by girls.

Water and sanitation go hand in hand, e.g. sewage thrown into the river which is a source of water supply often leads to its pollution. When there is no proper sanitation the risk of disease is higher. It is the women who have to look after sick children, and the young daughters who lose out on education.

GENDER ISSUES IN SANITATION

The UN has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, and a lot still need to be done to make a difference. Human waste disposal is often a taboo subject due to cultural and gender boundaries even though it presents one of the most pressing needs

There is a need to understand the implications of gender in the broader definition of sanitation. Most of the time bad sanitation denotes a lack of toilets or latrines at home, in schools or public places. Sharing of latrines can also be a deterrent to their use by women because they do not want to be seen entering or leaving the toilet and they often have to wait until dark to defecate or urinate.

This has a number of detrimental effects including security in terms of rape and harassment and health in terms of infections that may affect future fertility. Equally invasive are issues of privacy and personal hygiene related to menstruation, washing and bathing. At school there are often no facilities for menstruating girls and where latrines exist they are often expected to share facilities with boys.

While women are mostly responsible for cleaning sanitation units they often do so without any training on the use of protective gloves and anticeptics. This could result in poor hygiene and exposure to bacteria and several parasitic infections resulting in outbreak of epidemics.

PRIVATIZATION AND THE RIGHT TO WATER

Privatization of water services versus the right to water has been controversial. Water for basic needs has been identified primarily as a public good and a human right and not as a commodity to be traded in the open market for profit.

This does not imply that the government should supply water free to the population, but implies that shifting responsibility to large private corporations may supersede attention to human needs and rights and private companies may remain largely unaccountable to the people they are supposed to benefit. This could force poor women to use contaminated water that is free rather than clean water, which they cannot afford. This of course impacts the health of the community, and may result in much higher costs in health care.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Water and sanitation goals may seem ambitious, but they are very modest as these goals do not envisage providing a tap in every kitchen or a flush toilet in every house. Access to clean water and sanitation does not only improve the health of a family, but it also provides an opportunity for girls to go to school, and for women to use their time more productively than in fetching water thereby contributing more to the economy..

Gender mainstreaming would ensure the participation of women in capacity building, design and management of water and sanitation services, but care should be taken not lead to more work and responsibilities for women and exempt or bypass men, but equitably distribute benefits and burdens between the sexes.

Budgets are a critical tool for mainstreaming. If gender considerations are built into policies and project design, they should reflect in resource allocation otherwise they will not deliver substantive equality for women. Also key is increased gender awareness, through training at all levels to achieving sustainable development.

*Roselynn Musa is the Advocacy Officer at the African Women’s Development and Communications Network, (FEMNET) in Nairobi, Kenya.

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

*For further notes, please follow this link:

Roselyn Musa writes about International Women's Day as a time to reflect on how far women have come, and how far they still have to go

INTRODUCTION

As I reminisce over the celebration of yet another International Women’s Day (IWD), I remember a popular candy I used to relish as child which boasted of immediate enjoyment of hard, fruity coating before you reach the chewy, long- lasting centre. To me this encapsulates the struggle for women’s rights the world over, in that while we walk the tight rope to promoting and protecting the rights of women we endure a lot of hard stuff along with the fruit as we move towards the day when struggling for women’s rights will become history and IWD will be a recounting of how we overcame, how women’ equal dignity and human rights as full beings are not only enshrined in the basic instruments of today’s international community, but are realized and are made central to our vision of a democratic society.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

For the uninitiated, I may need to explain its origins. The International Women’s Day (8 March) was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly, composed of delegates from every member state, in recognition that peace and social progress require the active participation and equality of women, and to acknowledge the contribution of women to international peace and security. It is often designated a public holiday in many countries when women (and men) come together annually to celebrate and mark the day; when they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. Ordinarily, it is the story of ordinary and extraordinary women as makers of history. A day rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men.

For the women of the world, the day is an occasion to review how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements irrespective of diversities, whether racial, religious, national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women.

IS ANYONE TRAMPLING OUR RIGHTS?

Personally, when I talk about women’s rights I have often been challenged and asked the rhetorical question whether anyone is trampling on our rights. My response, of course is a big ‘yes’. Let us examine some of these rights: I will be modest and give only a few examples. In the enjoyment of their rights, women face constraints and vulnerabilities which differ from those that affect men and which are of significant relevance to the enjoyment of these rights. At the same time, these variables mean that women may be affected by violations of rights in ways that are different from men. For example, women are disproportionately affected by poverty and social marginalization. Women suffer systemic discrimination, which results in deep patterns of inequality and disadvantage. The overall level of development and of resources available to our countries, particularly in Africa continue to dwindle and women bear the brunt, women’s literacy levels and women’s access to information and to legal remedies also have an impact on enjoyment of their rights. The gender based division of labour, with women being primarily responsible for reproductive work and work related to the family, and men for productive work, also contributes to the perpetuation of gender based inequalities.

Yet it is encouraging to note that in spite of the un-enabling environment women have contributed immensely to society’s development in politics, industry, commerce, education, academia, agriculture, the environment and the home, thereby benefiting both women and men.

This emphasizes that such gender based inequalities and disadvantages need to be addressed explicitly in all actions of governments and of other actors entrusted with their implementation, beginning with our very own charter, the Protocol to the African Charter for Human and Peoples Rights on Women’s Rights.

Why dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of the world's women?
The simple answer is that it is an important day for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women. For the women of the world, the day's symbolism has a wider meaning: It is an occasion to review how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development It is true, though, that recent decades having seen progress: with increased women's access to education and proper health care, high growth in their participation in the paid labour force; adoption of legislation that promises equal opportunities for women and respect for their human rights in many countries. However, nowhere in the world can women claim to have the same rights and opportunities as men. This leaves us wondering for how long this deplorable situation will continue. Not for long I hope.

Finally, we just need to realise and appreciate the fact that there can be no peace, security and sustainable economic development if societies continue to deny human rights, including the human rights of women and until the men and women work together to secure the rights and full potential of women, lasting solutions to the world's most serious social, economic and political problems are unlikely to be found. But we shall overcome. You’ll see.

*Roselyn Musa is an advocacy Officer at FEMNET.

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

Roselynn Musa writes that despite the promises and the mobilisations by women from all over the continent, African women still lack adequate protection of their human rights. She argues that the root of the problem is the persistent lack of political will by governments to implement commitments to gender equality.

The 21st century marks a critical juncture in the promotion and protection of a human rights culture in Africa. As the world becomes more interdependent, regional systems of cooperation are playing an increasingly important role in the promotion and establishment of a positive international human rights order.

African states have committed themselves to various international and regional policy documents. The most significant international gender mechanisms are the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) of 1995, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the charter, hereafter), the International Conference on Population and Development’s Programme of Action (ICPD PoA), the African Union’s Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the constitutive act of the African Union. In signing up to the MDGs, 191 governments resolved to promote gender equality as a goal in its own right, but also the empowerment of women in order to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate sustainable development. NEPAD also stresses equality and enhances women’s rights through its African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). All these conventions and policy frameworks commit governments to address gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment. They are subject to periodic reviews to measure the extent to which they have been delivered.

Over the past year these reviews have generally shown that Africa has made some progress at all levels. Most countries have developed national gender machineries and policies, but the majority of their strategies have not been implemented. Despite all these promises and first-class commitments, African women are no better off than when they started. The promises have moved a shoe size further on, if at all. The stagnation in some respects and deterioration in others are worrying, particularly given the level of mobilisation of women and advocacy by women’s rights activists from all over the continent. At the root of the problem lies the persistent lack of political will on the part of African governments to implement commitments to gender equality.

This paper explores the relationship between the international and regional policy framework on women’s human rights in Africa and its actual implementation. It discusses the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (from here onwards referred to as the protocol), compares it with other instruments and highlights what makes it unique. It concludes with the challenges encountered in promoting women’s rights and recommends accelerated implementation of gender policy commitments in Africa.
The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

The protocol seeks to address the shortcomings of the international instruments that preceded it in addressing African women’s rights. It has proven to be a much-needed improvement on the way in which the AChHPR addressed the position of women in Africa. It applies CEDAW and BPfA in an African context.

The protocol has three sections. The first sets out its rationale and refers to both regional and international commitments on women’s rights. The second outlines the rights to be upheld by the protocol, and the third covers its implementation and addresses the procedures for adopting, monitoring and amending it.

The protocol is the first instrument to be developed by Africans for women in Africa. It builds on and strengthens other regionally negotiated issues that have been detrimental to women’s human rights. It challenges cultural behaviour and traditions that often violate the fundamental rights of women in Africa. The inclusion of articles concerning widows and inheritance rights is regarded as a breakthrough, for these are issues particular to African women which are normally swept under the carpet. And it gives women a line of defence on which to base their appeals in cases where they have been unsuccessful in challenging national discriminatory laws or practices.

The entry into force of the protocol reflects a growing awareness that women are equal members of society, and that they are participants and not simply beneficiaries in the development process. Prosperity on the African continent requires the promotion and protection of the rights of all African peoples, as well as adherence to the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination.

From the above it can be seen that the African Union has plans and programmes to ensure that its member states are part of the global effort to advance the principle of gender equality in Africa.

Enforcement mechanisms

At the national level, the procedure for domestication of CEDAW and the protocol is a major challenge. While several countries have acceded to CEDAW, many have not taken the extra step to domesticate it and make it part of their national laws. What this means in effect is that its provisions cannot be directly applied in national courts. States parties do not always have the political will to implement commitments made at the international level.

The challenges faced in implementing CEDAW are a good indication of those the protocol will face, from which important lessons can be drawn. The mandate of the CEDAW Committee is to monitor its implementation by the states parties which have ratified it, and this is done through periodic reports. Unfortunately this is one area that has not been taken very seriously by states parties. Many have two or more reports outstanding, while some have submitted none. This is a major challenge to the committee’s work.

While the process of reporting is thorough, to a great extent it remains in the hands of governments; NGO participation is weak. The examination of states parties’ reports is not intended to be adversarial, but should be done in a manner that promotes constructive dialogue between the states parties and the committee.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is an approach of last resort when all other domestic remedies have failed to provide satisfactory results. Pending the full establishment of the African Court, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (the commission, hereafter) is seized with matters of interpretation arising from the application and interpretation of the protocol. The commission was established under Article 30 of the charter. Its primary responsibility is to promote and ensure the protection of human rights on the continent. Its four areas of mandate are: promotional activities, protective activities, the examination of state party reports and the interpretation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It holds regular sessions twice a year in around April and November and can hold extraordinary sessions.

The commission has 11 part-time members. They are independent experts and act in their personal capacity rather than as representatives of their governments. The integration of the protocol into the implementation mechanism of the commission is consistent with the provisions of the charter itself. It will ensure that women whose rights under the protocol have been violated will have final recourse to the African Court to have their rights established and enforced. Furthermore, individuals other than the victims themselves, as well as human rights NGOs, can bring a complaint on behalf of the victims to the court.

One of the challenges facing domestication of the protocol is the multiplicity of legal systems in most African countries. While in a few countries international treaties, once ratified, automatically become part of national law, in most cases they have to be passed by an act of parliament to bring them into effect.

It is encouraging that the constitutive act of the reinvigorated African Union, which replaced the Organisation of African Unity, and the creation of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has emboldened women’s rights advocates to press for more vigorous enforcement of international and regional commitments.
Unique features of the protocol
The protocol was drawn up after many other treaties and therefore has the advantage of hindsight. It was able to draw on the best parts of earlier documents while also dealing with issues they omitted. The protocol is closely modelled on CEDAW; there are more similarities than differences between the two. The differences are mainly in those areas that concern African women and that CEDAW mentions in the abstract or not at all. The protocol names specific rights and defines violence against women. Its definition of a woman is comprehensive and includes the girl-child. It is culture-specific and therefore very valuable in challenging negative cultural practices. Unlike CEDAW, the protocol places explicit obligations on states to set aside resources to eliminate discrimination against women and to punish people or organisations that practise it.

There was initially stiff resistance to the protocol on the grounds that women in Africa do not need a separate provision, and that a clause on non-discrimination against women in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights would suffice to take care of the women’s rights issues that were omitted from it. The charter is perhaps distinct from other regional systems of human rights protection in that it has specific provisions that address the rights of women. This is apart from the commonplace provisions on the rights to equality and freedom from discrimination characteristic of most international instruments of this kind. With regard to the rights of women, the charter provides that ‘The state shall ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of the woman and the child as stipulated in international declarations and conventions’ (Article 18 (3)).

However, this provision has been regarded as too general, giving no substance to the rights of women, thereby placing these rights in a situation that has been described as a ‘legal coma’. Addressing the rights of women alongside those of children is also criticised. While recognising that both women and children have been victims of enduring violence, it raises the question of why the latter are equated with the former. Nevertheless, the charter is seen as creating the bedrock for the protection of women’s rights in Africa. It provides a basis from which states have to account for the status of women and the protection of their rights within national legal systems. And it enjoins African states to take positive steps to ensure that their national laws and policies seek or result in the attainment of these two primary goals. Since then there have been significant developments towards a more comprehensive legal regime for the protection of women’s rights in Africa, resulting in the drafting of the protocol to the charter.

The protocol can be a tool that forces states to prioritise legislative measures to eliminate harmful traditional practices. It provides a foundation on which human rights acquire legality in the African context, and a basis for assertions that African women’s rights to equality are no longer contested. What is critical at this point is to see greater dynamism from domestic courts, the charter and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in giving meaning and precedence to the protocol.

The protocol attempts to invigorate the charter’s commitment to women’s equality by adding rights that it omitted and by clarifying governments’ obligations. Only one of the charter’s more than 60 articles makes specific reference to women. These are some of its shortcomings:

• Its failure to define explicitly discrimination against women
• Its lack of guarantees concerning the rights of women to consent to marriage and equality in marriage
• Its emphasis on traditional values and practices that have long impeded the advancement of women’s rights in Africa.

Some of the most serious violations of women’s rights in Africa take place in the private sphere of the family and are reinforced by traditional norms and cultural values. Article 17 (2) and (3) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights states that every individual ‘may freely take part in the cultural life of his community’, and that ‘the protection and promotion of morals and traditional values recognized by the community shall be the duty of the state’. The only specific reference to women’s rights is contained in a clause concerning the family and the upholding of tradition, thereby reproducing the tension that plagues the realisation of women’s rights in Africa. Indeed, the charter has been interpreted as protecting customary and religious laws that violate women’s rights, such as their rights to equality and non-discrimination, to life, liberty and the security of the person, and to protection from cruel and degrading treatment.

The protocol recognises women as individual human beings rather than members of communities or families. It deals with discrimination in both the public and private realms and targets both direct and indirect discrimination. It also moves equality from an abstract concept to something that states parties are expected to take concrete measures to address.

Most importantly, however, the protocol offers a real remedy for women at the regional level. It gives women victims of human rights violations somewhere to turn, providing them with practical access to bodies which will understand the implications of their experience. But this potential will only be realised if states parties ensure that they protect women’s rights in practice and work to implement the commitments they have made.

The campaign: Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR)

While acknowledging the scale of the challenges, I also want to celebrate our achievements by recognising the efforts of Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), a coalition that has been working tirelessly to advance the cause of the protocol.

SOAWR is a regional network of 26 civil society organisations and development partners working towards the promotion and protection of women’s human rights in Africa.[1] Since its inauguration in 2004, SOAWR’s main focus has been to get those countries that have not yet ratified the protocol to do so urgently, while at the same time encouraging those that have ratified it to domesticate and implement it at the national level. SOAWR also works to persuade countries that have ratified the protocol with reservations to remove harmful reservations that would constitute a denial of some of the most important freedoms and rights of women recognised in the protocol.

SOAWR has been using all the instruments at its disposal and has capitalised on every opportunity to move the campaign forward: writing petitions, direct advocacy with national and regional leaders, mobile phone SMS service, publications in different languages, AU pre-summit civil society forums, public forums, press conferences, coloured rating cards, and so on. SOAWR is currently documenting the advocacy strategies it has used in its campaigning. This was an idea which came from a meeting of SOAWR members immediately after the pre-summit activities they organised in Accra, Ghana, in June 2007. They decided to document their efforts to provide a clearer understanding of what was being done to encourage ratification and domestication of the protocol, and to offer inspiration and a means of action to the Africa-wide movement for the endorsement and domestication of the protocol.

I hope that SOAWR will continue to create a platform for debate and dialogue on the disjuncture between international instruments and their national implementation in Africa and to identify strategies that researchers, activists, and government officials can apply to bridge that gap. Gender activists should also join their voices to civil society coalitions such as SOAWR to continue calling for the removal of the structural barriers that face women.

Obstacles and challenges

The domestication and further ratification of the protocol have been slowed by a lack of political will. Even though most countries have established national gender machineries, these are weak and lack adequate authority, capacity, human resources and funding. This is coupled with inadequate skills in gender analysis among planners and implementers, and limited gender awareness within communities.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is an important tool in interpreting the protocol, is not yet fully functional. Even when it is, access to it by civil society organisations, which have been the main champions of the protocol, will be limited to those countries that have signed a declaration to facilitate such action.

Women’s participation in politics and decision making remains low, and this slows down their influence on governments to carry out their obligations under the protocol. Women’s access to justice is further inhibited by illiteracy and ignorance of their rights and how to access them. Some cultural and traditional practices continue to hold back progress in realising the provisions of the protocol.

Most of the human rights instruments set a ceiling and a floor as frameworks that women can use to combat discrimination in its many forms. However, these tools in themselves are not perfect. For example, the language employed in some of them is either too complicated or too broad or both; this could create problems of interpretation, especially at the national level. They also fail to address the issue of recourse in cases of non-compliance. It has been said that they can only bark because they lack the teeth they need to bite. The consequences of non-compliance and non-enforcement need to be built into them.

Another problem is the strategy of placing reservations on some key provisions. This negates the principle of women’s rights as first and foremost being inalienable, integral and indivisible.

One other obstacle that has been identified at the national level is that few lawyers are aware of the protocol and are therefore unable to cite it in support of their arguments. Not many law students take up courses in gender and the law where these are part of the curriculum, hence their ignorance about the protocol and other women’s rights instruments.
Lessons learned

Effective implementation of international human rights standards for women has depended so far on the will of individual states. Cultural and religious practices are often used to undermine the implementation of provisions concerning women’s rights. Reliance on the good will of governments to implement international agreements has not yielded positive results. CEDAW was seen as foreign, but even though the protocol is home-grown, our governments have not treated it differently as far as implementation is concerned.

Women’s empowerment requires a higher level of involvement by women in governance and decision making. Systemic and structural barriers that prevent them from participating in decision making at all levels need to be removed.

The media can play an important role in promoting equality. Women’s press and communications initiatives and the use of technology to promote women’s activities should be supported.

The proliferation of instruments has also been cited as a possible factor hindering compliance because each one requires a different reporting and accounting procedure, thereby placing a huge burden on states. There is also inadequate dissemination of information about these instruments at the local level.

A number of African states have bound themselves to international human rights instruments, but only a few have actually taken steps to make them enforceable within their countries. It seems that our governments ratify such instruments not because of a political commitment to their content, but because of political expediency and in order to maintain a good image. The failure to domesticate these commitments remains a big problem.

The multiplicity of laws in different countries is such that most countries will have to enact new legislation to domesticate the protocol after ratification. A number of countries that have ratified the protocol, such as South Africa and Mauritius, did so with harmful reservations, signifying their unwillingness completely to abandon practices that discriminate against women. The legitimacy of entering reservations on the treaties may be questionable because of the substance of such reservations.

Mainstream international human rights standards are defined in relation to men’s experiences and are stated in terms of discrete violations of rights in the public realm, whereas most violations of women’s rights take place in the private realm. The public/private dichotomy that is so detrimental to women’s rights continues to exist.

The drafters of the protocol were very much influenced by the contents of CEDAW as well as the work of the CEDAW committee. It is therefore obvious that to ensure effective implementation of the protocol, Africa should draw on the experience of the CEDAW committee.

Conclusion

It is evident from the preceding paragraphs that the adoption of the protocol is a significant development that will ensure the full integration of women’s human rights within the overall human rights framework in Africa. The protocol will allow both the African Commission and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to elaborate how the rights recognised under it should be guaranteed in real-life situations.

The role of international instruments and other initiatives cannot be underestimated. Broad legitimacy beyond the nation state has created some leverage to pursue the gender agenda. However we are faced with growing failure to translate these instruments into reality in the domestic context. The gap between the commitments and their implementation is becoming ever larger, raising the question: what needs to be done? We should consider both individually and collectively what we can do to ensure that implementation takes place.

There is no denying that it is very important to have these commitments on paper as markers of progress. What is more important though is using them to ensure actual change in the lives of women. We have to be careful that the gains won in Beijing are not turned back.

Recommendations

There needs to be a specialist body similar to the CEDAW committee to monitor implementation of the protocol. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in its work to monitor the charter, has not paid enough attention to the protocol. Even though it has appointed a Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, this office needs more human and financial resources to carry out its mandate effectively. States parties are bound by Article 26 of the protocol to report on progress in its implementation, but they are not likely to take this seriously if they are not required to report to a particular body specifically set up to monitor the protocol.

The teaching of women’s rights should be incorporated into the curriculum of law faculties as a core discipline, to ensure that lawyers leave school knowing not only national laws but also regional and international instruments that protect women’s rights.

Women’s rights organisations and coalitions such as SOAWR should be supported to monitor implementation of the protocol. They should be assisted financially to participate in commission meetings and to prepare shadow reports when country reports are being considered.

Steps should be taken to institute in full the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights without further delay.

Women should be encouraged to participate in political processes at all levels and in portfolios that have significant policy roles. Members of parliament also have an important role to play in passing legislation, initiating private members’ bills and demanding ministerial statements on obligations undertaken.

The media could also contribute by disseminating information on the progress of the protocol and its benefits to citizens so that they can demand implementation.

All the rights in the protocol are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Thus the violation of any one of them affects the enjoyment of all the others. Countries should be encouraged to ratify the protocol without registering reservations.

Our leaders and policy makers should resolve to change not only what is outside of them, but also what is inside them as far as attitudes to gender equality are concerned. With a redefined notion of power and equality we will be able to bring about change.

* Roselynn Musa is the Advocacy Officer at the African Women’s Development and Communications Network, (FEMNET) in Nairobi, Kenya

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

For references and notes, see link below.

The idea of the grand debate remains everything but grand in so far as the debate is seen as an imposition by our leaders, to the exclusion of the people, especially the masses, and of course we know that women constitute the bulk.

When I first heard about it, I asked myself a couple of questions which I did not get answers to. First, I asked why it is qualified by the adjective, ‘grand’ when there is really nothing grand about it in either scope or substance.

The idea of the grand debate remains everything but grand in so far as the debate is seen as an imposition by our leaders to the exclusion of the people, especially the masses, and of course we know that women constitute the bulk. There can be nothing grand about the debate so long as its train is moving, and the people, both women and men, are not carried along with it.

One of the next questions I asked myself was: why should we be having this debate in the first place? I would have thought that the question 'to be or not to be' on regional integration is as good as answered; and the questions remain ‘when’ and ‘how’? The question should not be: whether or not. It is a given, and there is no going back. It is a situation of forward ever, backward never. Unlike the OAU, the AU's envisioning for Africa of a peaceful, united and prosperous continent driven by its people lays claim to be a union of African people, and not just a club of heads of states. But how far this is true, we are yet to see.

Our leaders did not stop at theorising. They stepped further by creating new organs like the Pan African Parliament (PAP) and the Economic and Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) through which the voice of the people will be projected to provide room for popular participation by the people in its activities.

The adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights in 1999 signalled one of the preliminary and important steps towards including African peoples, including women, in deciding their own affairs. This was further elaborated with the signing of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa in 2003, and its coming into force in 2005.

The difference between the OAU and the AU is also seen in the AU's highlighting of human rights, which includes gender equality. This is evidenced by its excision of the clause of non-interference in the internal affairs of member nations, for which the OAU was notorious, and also the adoption of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa of 2004. But the extent to which these have made a difference in the lives of African women, if at all, is not clear.

Speaking of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, it struck me that when a document is referred to as being solemn, it simply depicts the deep sincerity underlying its signing and adoption. In all the AU documents I have come across, it is only this very important document that, paradoxically, bears this adjective. I stand to be corrected. The document could anyway have been referred to simply as a ‘declaration on Gender Equality in Africa’, given the little or no attention paid to it by our leaders, thereby connoting neither deepness nor sincerity.

But come to think of it, when our leaders signed the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, no one held guns to their heads. They were not cornered, threatened or blackmailed into making commitments to it, leaving one wondering why they are now paying lip-service to it. Why they are dragging their feet and why are we having such a hard time getting them to implement it? At the recently concluded G8 meeting in Heilingendamm, our leaders accused the G8 of reneging on their promises to Africa, but many Africans sadly do not see our leaders in the same light.

Not only is the low level inclusion of women noted in the grand debate, the inclusion of the masses generally is rather more than a little disappointing. If most of the citizens are not included in the debate, how then is this situation different from what it was centuries ago, when our forefathers ceded our entire land and livelihood to the colonial masters for mere ‘shoestrings’. Women were not consulted then, as we are not now. How many peoples and groups have had the opportunity to deliberate and contribute to this ‘grand debate'?

Analysing the official AU study on the proposed union government, gender was mentioned in passing as an area of focus, but did not carry with it any substance. It was not clear what is to be done with respect to gender. As a matter of urgency, African women want this to be broken down so as to be sure we are not being ‘offered’ another white elephant. If gender is a crosscutting issue, as it is often said, and all the areas of priority would be viewed through gender lenses, this should not just be done, but be seen to be done.

Apart from African women, civil society organisations should be included to make the debate meaningful. It is recognised that one of the causes of collapse of some previous regional integration arrangements, e.g. the East African Community (1967-1977), was the low level of involvement of civil society in their activities buttressing the fact that the effectiveness and sustainability of regional integration in Africa will be ensured through sustained political will and involvement of the people in the continental integration processes.

Civil society organisations have been challenged severely on what and who gave them the mandate to represent the people, who elected them and what the basis is of their legitimacy. But when patients are referred from government’s hospitals, due to inadequate facilities and expertise or both, to Nairobi Women’s Hospital, no one raises the question of legitimacy.

The AU has secluded itself in this debate so much so that even the legislative authorities at national level and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are left behind in the grand debate, despite the fact that Africa’s integration process has always been government-led. Yet the latter are supposed to be the building blocks on which the foundations of the union are based.

It is essential that involvement in the debate on union government should not stop at jaw-jawing, but include considering the peoples’ interests and opinions, taking them on board, and basing them on the strategic area of focus on shared values and common interests.

They should not stop at just soliciting public participation and opinion, but should also find ways of exciting them, just like it is done in voter education before an election, where political parties state their manifestos, who is contesting and what the electorate stands to benefit.

It is noted that there has been a dearth of information from the media, both of the process leading to it, and also of the debate itself. But that is understandable, such is the inactivity on this question for the media to cover widely and deeply.

I am sure when our leaders started thinking and deliberating on these issues, right from the beginning, they did not foresee that it was not going to be a thorny path. This path hopefully will be in a smooth and straight road. Yet they should remember that they can only get there if they remain dedicated to the cause of the journey and do not waver.

We can see from the experience of the EU that there certainly will be conflicts. We should then, even at this formatory stage, begin to think of the conflict prevention and management that should put mechanisms we want in place without waiting for them to erupt, and we start applying the fire brigade method.

* Roselynn Musa works with African Women’s Development and Communications Network, FEMNET, Nairobi, Kenya.

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

What Reverend Mmoja Ajabu misses in his letter () to the editor is that Government Ministers in Zimbabwe have publicly said that the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are a non-event. The West is imposing sanctions so that ZANU [PF] governs the people of Zimbawe democratically. I am sure in the end democracy will prevail in Zimbabwe.The reverend should also know that ZANU [PF] blames the MDC for sanctions in order to divert the people of Zimbabwe from the real issues.

Substantially reducing poverty in Africa will require massive policy shifts, writes Roselynn Musa. This is unlikely to happen unless the voices of women and poor people, which are largely missing from trade policy negotiations, are heard and respected.

It has often been propositioned that ‘trade’ and not ‘aid’ is the catalyst that will plunge African countries from unending poverty to economic prosperity. There is no denying the fact that trade has brought benefits for African women particularly in generating a rise in employment opportunities, yet research into the impacts of trade policy on gender relations and equality paints a disturbing picture. Such research shows that trade under similar terms has different impacts on women and men and often affects women more negatively than positively in their position as workers, consumers, producers, and care givers within the domestic sphere. It also shows that even among women trade affects urban dwellers differently from rural dwellers and younger women differently from older women.

This paper therefore challenges the myth which claims that trade liberalisation brings many benefits at very little cost. Trade liberalisation can bring benefits to a country, but it is also true that trade liberalisation imposes heavy burdens on women as workers in Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and in commercial agriculture. It discusses issues of gender and trade in Africa centering on employment, labour, privatization, salary gaps, and the impact of trade on productive and reproductive spheres. It concludes with steps that could be taken to promote gender equitable trade relations in Africa.

It is evident that trade liberalisation has different outcomes for men and women. These differential impacts relate to many of the most fundamental aspects of livelihoods and well-being, including employment, income, food security and access to health services. The outcomes differ across countries and regions and are based on the type of economic area and specific sector, measures, timing and sequencing of trade policies. They also cut across different sectors and sub-sectors of trade liberalisation: agriculture, services, clothing and textiles, and intellectual property.

Practically, the impacts of trade are felt by individual men and women as fluctuations in price (and hence availability of goods) and through changes in output (what people work to produce, how and under what conditions). The main argument of the proponents of free market policies, including some gender advocates, is that increased trade and investment liberalisation can improve a country’s economic growth, which in turn can increase women’s participation in the labour market. Consequently there have been increased employment opportunities in non-traditional agriculture such as cut flowers, and clothing and textiles, and the services sectors.

Trade may bring new employment and business opportunities, but existing inequalities such as low skills and gendered division of labour means that any adverse effect of trade liberalization - including impacts on the labour market and working conditions - are felt more by women than men.

The impacts of trade liberalisation may vary at different levels of the economy, and may differ between women and men. Yet the picture is often complex and contradictory. For example, African women have benefited from trade liberalisation by increasing their access to employment such as in the Economic Processing Zones (EPZs), but at the same time, African women have paid the price of adjustments in their roles in household management and traditional agriculture, which have been negatively impacted.

The inequality emanating from the differential impacts that trade has on women and men can be effectively addressed and government and other international players held accountable for existing commitments on women’s human rights conventions during trade negotiations. For example, the lack of a mechanism to hold the current trade and international financial regimes into account on women’s rights is evident. This is aggravated by the fact that these regimes did not exist at the time of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the resultant Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) did not specifically address concerns around them and their implications on women’s lives.

Import liberalisation means decreasing tariffs payable to national governments on goods coming into the country. This usually leads to a drop in domestic revenue and consequently cuts in government spending. Such cuts disproportionately affect women, particularly cuts in social services such as health, provision of water, electricity and so forth.

Going back to the example of the consequences in a fall in prices of domestically produced goods due to the abundance of cheap imports, though women may benefit from lower prices of imported products, as small scale producers they face stiff competition with cheap imported goods. This is exacerbated by the fact that government policies of export promotion intended to cushion this effect may be detrimental for small scale producers (mainly women) as these tend to prioritise cash crops, which are mainly produced by men. By extension this has a negative effect on food security, an area for which women are largely responsible.

If we look at the issues of gender participation and governance and ask who was included in decision-making processes around trade issues at the national, sub-regional and regional levels we discover that women play very small roles. There is a wide gap in integration of gender analysis or consultation with women. As long as African women must still negotiate family and work responsibilities, they tend to engage in more informal sector, or home- based work. Women’s equal participation in trading activities is further hampered by concerns such as difficulty in accessing capital, lack of relevant training and skills or limited contacts with national and international trade networks. On this basis there is a need to recognise that women’ participation in international trade must be on terms that allow them the same choices as men and in conditions where they are equally involved in decision- making, with the same opportunities for growth for their businesses and exports.

The question to ask at this point is: How far have African governments’ commitments to gender equality in trade policy been translated into practice? In recent years, it has been viewed that foreign trade has assumed a prominent place in economic development strategies as a key to financing development in African countries, without adding further to their indebtedness.

In addition, expectations have been raised that by creating jobs, transferring new technologies and building linkages with the rest of the economy, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will directly address the continents´ poverty challenge. Thus policy reforms aimed at improving the investment climate in African countries have increasingly been centred on attracting FDI without the desired results either in increasing FDI flows in productive sectors or in ensuring more rapid growth and poverty reduction. The continent at present accounts for just 2 to 3 per cent of global flows, down from a peak of 6 per cent in the mid-1970s. Even on a per capita basis, the gap between Africa and other developing regions widened significantly in the 1990s and remains very large.

Although there are signs of just a little advancement in Africa’s commitment to gender equality and gender mainstreaming, further steps need to be taken. Specifically, gender issues must be put in the trade and development agenda in a more coherent form, and trade policies should complement gender equality and development policies as enshrined in the Convention on The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA)

It is widely understood that women make up the majority of workers in the EPZs where the labour and social concerns of women differ from those of men. Women workers in these factories are faced with issues of poor working conditions, and problems of managing both work and domestic responsibilities. Women are paid lower wages than men, partly due to persistent assumptions about women’s income being secondary, rather than primary in the household. They also face instability of employment and lack of access to training, healthcare or social security provisions, notably childcare. They are frequently hired on short-term contracts - or with no contract at all - to work very long hours with little or no job security and little consideration for occupational health. In order to compete and keep prices low, many of the increased costs and risks of doing business are increasingly borne by women, who are still expected to raise children and care for sick and elderly relatives, even when they are the ‘breadwinners’.

Despite the existence of corporate codes of conduct and international conventions in place to protect workers, governments are under pressure from local and foreign investors and from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO), and World Bank loan conditions to maintain flexibility in the supply chain. This has meant that labour standards are not universally enforced, resulting in short term contracts with little or no benefits.

Studies have shown that work in industries has had a positive effect on women’s self-esteem and decision-making within the family. Paid employment can improve women’s autonomy as well as their economic and social status. It can also shift power relations between women and men, including at the household level, and can improve women’s well-being, negotiating power and overall status.

However, the picture is not as clear-cut as this might suggest. The structure of domestic labour markets and global production chains is highly gendered. Despite the advantages, in many contexts trade liberalisation is coupled with persistent occupational segregation by sex, both vertical and horizontal (Horizontal segregation refers to the distribution of women and men across occupations. Vertical segregation refers to the distribution of men and women in the job hierarchy in terms of status and occupation.) Women not only supply a cheaper workforce, but are also supposedly more docile. And, because of the gendered division of labour, work with textiles, for example, fits in accordance with existing gender norms. Women therefore tend to have less skilled jobs than men; most of the time their wages are lower than men, and they often work in unhealthy and exploitative conditions characterised by incessant sexual harassment/ sexual blackmail.

At this point it is important to note the differentiated impact among women, due to differences based on age, class, race, geographical location or ethnicity. It is generally the poor and marginalised groups of women who are negatively affected by unemployment and the restructuring of labour markets. In reality, there are differentiated outcomes for women in their different roles and locations. For instance, in Ghana, women consumers in urban centres have benefited from the availability of cheaper foodstuffs because they are the net buyers of food. However, women farmers in rural areas, as the net producers of food, have been negatively affected by export-promotion policies that have mainly benefited men and large-scale farmers. They have also suffered, as have men farmers, from declining household incomes due to the increased competition with imports, reduced farm gate prices (price of goods as they are sold where they are produced) and declining commodity prices in international markets.

The policy reforms induced by trade liberalisation and the WTO regime have also resulted in a shrinking policy space that has altered the role of the state in profound ways. Some commentators argue that trade liberalisation has endangered the fiscal basis of the state as a result of tariff reductions combined with the tight constraints on budgets imposed by International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The most common policy response to these fiscal problems has been to increase domestic indirect taxation on goods and services, with a focus on value added tax (VAT). VAT can be particularly detrimental to women, both as consumers and in relation to their reproductive role, as it is often levied on goods for the household and labour-saving devices such as domestic appliances.

Fiscal austerity also has implications for spending on services such as health and education, which are essential for all, but particularly for women. It can also constrain the ability of governments to put in place social protection measures and safety nets to offset some of the negative impacts of liberalisation. These negative impacts are compounded by the undermining effects of international trade rules on national commitments to international conventions on human rights and gender equality.

In practice, service liberalisation is the ultimate outcome of the privatisation agenda carried out through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank programmes under structural adjustment and more recently through the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) mechanisms. Although proponents of liberalisation argue that this will reduce the price of services, it does raise a number of issues such as universal access to essential services that pertain to basic needs and rights that states are obliged to provide for their citizens. Experience has shown that when the costs of essential services rise, women typically make up for the shortfall in household resources and caring responsibilities. A government’s ability to regulate the quality of such services is critical to ensuring that the rules are applied in a manner that does not impede the achievement of national development objectives, especially in the area of gender equality.

Trade liberalisation therefore has an impact on women’s unpaid labour. In addition to having to take on added caring responsibilities with the reduction in social spending, the pressure to produce for export drives people out of subsistence farming where caring responsibilities could often be incorporated into productive work or shared among family members. Moreover, although paid employment outside the home can be an advantage to women in many ways, the work needed to reproduce and care for the labour force often means a double or even triple work burden, demonstrating that women working in such industries can suffer extreme stress over juggling their workloads. Women's unpaid work within the household further increases during periods of economic downturn,. When household incomes fall and there is less money available to pay for labour-saving devices or for assistance in caring roles for children or the elderly, women move in to make up the shortfall. These are also the times when women are more likely to take on informal work to boost domestic finances.

Recommendations

- There is a need for the collection of gender aggregated data and detailed research into the impact of trade liberalisation on gender relations and women’s lives.
- Trade review mechanisms and mainstream impact assessments can be used as entry points for gender analysis
- Capacity building is needed to help women participate in determining priorities for trade and employment policies.
- Development agencies and trade ministries need to ensure that market access programmes acknowledge the unequal power between women and men.
- Strategic alliances must be forged between gender equality advocates, trade justice activists and development actors working on policies and programmes.
- There is the need to focus on raising women’s skill levels to cope with the loss of domestic production and to adapt to new markets, as well as develop better tools to establish the gendered impacts of trade agreements.
- Programmes should be developed that promote women’s access to resources (land and credit).
- Attention should be paid to provision of services such as child care, mobile health clinic, maternity protection, paid sick leave etc to enable women to participate in trade activities.
International institutions engaged in trade related functions should be more accountable for defending women’s rights.
- Existing international agreements on women’s rights such as CEDAW and the BPfA should be upheld.
- Women should be provided with training as well as access to credit and finance and improving access to management, marketing and technological skills that will allow them to move beyond micro- credit schemes.
- Networks should be established for advocacy, training, information-sharing and awareness raising between women entrepreneurs, gender focused NGOs, government officials.
- Employers should promote women’s advancement, not limit this to low-skilled, low- paid jobs.
- Women workers should be empowered to defend their rights.
- Introduction of fair trade to ensure that women are paid a fair wage for their contribution to agricultural and production processes resulting in stability of income.
- All institutions dealing with trade policies and governments need to be made accountable and transparent.
- Policy-making should be made democratic and participatory.

The African continent remains by and large marginalized in the world economy, with over half of the population living under US$1 a day per person. If the major Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by half by the year 2015 is to be achieved in Africa, a major policy shift is required, both at the national and regional levels, to help boost growth and development in Africa. Policy changes are unlikely to occur unless there is a substantive democratization of policy-making at all levels. In particular, the voices of women and poor people, which are largely missing from trade policy negotiations, need to be heard and respected.

* Roselynn Musa works with African Women’s Development and Communications Network, FEMNET, Nairobi, Kenya. For the full version of this article, please click on the link below.

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

References

African Union, (2004) The Road to Gender Equality in Africa: An Overview, Ethiopia

Barbara K (2002), Gender and Debt, Harare, AFRODAD

Beneria L et al, Engendering International Trade: Concepts. Policy and Action,

Edward O. et al, (2000) The Cost of Globalisation, Geneva

http://www.siyanda.org

.org/gender_tradehtml

Margaret S. et al, African Women and Development (1995), Johannesburg

Pheko, M. (2005) Gender and Trade Issues in Africa, Paper prepared for NEPAD Secretariat

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, (2004) Trade, Sustainable Development and Gender

UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Women’s Economic activities and Integration Network, report of meeting of focal points for Women’s Development Programme,

UNIFEM, Gender, Science and Development Working Paper Series

Van Starveren (2002) Gender and Trade Indicators, Brussels, WIDE

WIDE (2003) Feminist Challenges in a Globalised Economy, Brussels

Wiliams, M. (2002), Women in the Market: A manual for Popular Economic Literacy, , Brussels, WIDE

World Bank, 2001

Recent efforts to document the real situation of women in Africa have produced some alarming statistics, writes Roselynn Musa, who proceeds to outline the provisions of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa that offer some hope for women on the continent.

Equality is the cornerstone of every democratic society which aspires to social justice and human rights. In virtually all societies and spheres of activity women are subject to inequalities in law and in practice. In Africa, while the causes, consequences and manifestations may vary from sub-region to sub-region, country-to-country, and even province-to-province, discrimination against women is widespread. The situation is both caused and exacerbated by the existence of discrimination in the family, community and workplace and perpetuated by the survival of stereotypes, cultural and religious practices and beliefs detrimental to women.

Recent efforts to document the real situation of women in Africa have produced some alarming statistics on the economic and social gaps between men and women:

- Out of 1.9 million victims of conflict in Sub- Saharan Africa in the 1990s 63% were women and children
- In the Republic of Congo 40,000 women have experienced some form of sexual violence since 1998
- More than half of Africa’s 6 million refugees and 17 million internally displaced people are women
- Between 1990-2005 women occupied 14.2% of parliamentary seats in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 8.5% in Northern Africa
- Literacy rates in Sub- Saharan Africa for young males is 77% as against 68% for women
- The number of women in wage earning employment between 1990- 2003 is 35.8 in Sub-Saharan Africa and 21,5 in Northern Africa, yet women are said to constitute about 70% of the world’s population
- UNAID’s statistics show that in 2003 out of the 23 million adults with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, 57% were women

The United Nations (UN), since its formation in 1945 has been at the forefront of advocacy for equal rights and the enjoyment of rights and freedoms, hence the entrenchment of the principle of equality and non- discrimination in its international and universal human rights instruments. Equality of the rights of women is a basic principle of the United Nations. [1] The International Bill of Human Rights [2] strengthens and extends the emphasis on the equal rights of women. One of the most significant developments in the field of human rights was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1948. Based on the equal right of every human being, the declaration proclaims the entitlement of everyone to enjoy human rights and fundamental freedom. [3]

Despite these Provisions women in Africa and elsewhere in the world continue to suffer blatant discrimination in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres. Consequently, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a landmark convention and in fact a global action towards redressing the existing inequalities, evolved with very systematic and far reaching consequences for women’s human rights globally. The convention sets out, in legally binding form, internationally accepted principles on the rights of women.

Why a separate Protocol for women?

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), also referred to as the Banjul Charter, was adopted in 1981 by the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union (AU). This document affirms both individual and collective rights and this distinguishes it from other international human rights treaties. It recognises African values and cultures and also emphasises both rights and duties. It provides for special protocols or agreements, if necessary, to supplement the provisions of the African Charter. [4] This serves as a legal basis for creating the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (The Protocol), which lays down a comprehensive set of rights to which all African women are entitled.

Why then was it necessary to have a separate instrument for African women? The ACHPR, just like other international human rights instruments before it, did not effectively redress the disadvantages and injustices experienced by African women by reason only of their being women, nor was it constructed to take into account women’s situations. Historically, human rights discourses started in the fields of political and civil rights - rights to life, freedom of association, etc. In this regard, the fundamental significance placed on human rights was directed towards the public rather than the private realm. Since men have largely dominated the public domain, this meant two things: that human rights came to be defined by men; and that these rights protected mostly men.

Substantive provisions of the Protocol

Article 2: Elimination of discrimination against women

In many African communities women are denied their basic legal rights, either implicitly or explicitly, including the right to participate fully in politics and the right to own property. Such instances of entrenched discrimination can easily be identified as discrimination. At the same time, not every differentiation will constitute discrimination.

In most African societies, men have used culture and tradition to justify discrimination against women. Male dominated ideologies in Africa have tended to use culture to justify oppressive gender relations. African governments could use the standards of the Protocol to remove all negative stereotyped cultures that discriminate against women and hinder their full advancement.

It is not enough to merely insert anti-discrimination clauses into the legislation. The Protocol also requires State parties to protect women’s rights effectively and provide women with opportunities for recourse and protection against discrimination. They should incorporate sanctions into legislation that deters discrimination against women. States party to the Protocol must take steps to eliminate discrimination in both public and private spheres. It is not enough to strive for equality for women vis-à-vis public authorities; states must also work to secure non-discrimination even within the family.

Article 3: Right to dignity

Every human being has an inherent right to be treated with dignity. This provision makes it incumbent for states to strive to remove the social, cultural and traditional patterns, which perpetuate gender role stereotypes, and to create an overall framework in society that promotes the realisation of full rights for African women. The prevalence of gender- role stereotypes is seen most particularly in the traditional concept of African women’s role in the domestic sphere.

The family as an agent of socialisation assigns different statuses, values and roles to boys and girls. In many countries in Africa discrimination against women starts before birth with parental and social attitudes that promote a preference for sons over daughters. Children of both sexes should be accorded equal opportunities to grow and develop to their full potential as equal partners for sustainable development and peace.

Many African women are denied an education because their role is considered primarily as one of caring for the family. This article therefore seeks to reform social and cultural traditions and practices and creates a common civil system that upholds the dignity of women as equal partners with men in society.

Article 4: The Rights to Life, Integrity and Security of the Person

Despite the efforts of women’s human rights activists, the spate of both public and private violence against women in Africa has not abated. Women are subject to violence and to threats of violence in their daily lives, physically and psychologically. Violence deprives women of their ability to achieve full equality. It threatens their freedom, safety and autonomy. Many cases of violence against women go unreported, particularly when they take place in the home, because of fear or shame. The psychological, emotional and economic conditions of women often alter their perception of reality such that they see themselves as completely helpless and unable to make choices. In some cases the abused women do not even see themselves as victims.

Although governments across Africa are now more concerned with the issue than in the past, few have taken legal, constitutional steps to stop the practice. The Protocol enjoins state parties to 'enact and enforce laws to prohibit all forms of violence against women including unwanted or forced sex, whether the violence takes place in private or public'. Unless this is done African women will not be able to enjoy fully the rights guaranteed in the Protocol.

This article charges state parties to take appropriate and effective measures to address issues of peace education, punishment for perpetrators of violence against women, rehabilitation of victims of such violence, trafficking in women, unauthorised medical and scientific experiments on women, opposition to death penalties on pregnant or nursing women, and to provide adequate budgetary and other resources for the implementation and monitoring of action aimed at preventing and eradicating violence against women.

Article 5: Elimination of Harmful Practices

Some cultures in Africa perpetuate traditional practices that are harmful to the health of women and constitute a direct violation of their fundamental human rights. Examples of such practices include Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), maltreatment of widows, male child preference, domestic violence, early/ forced marriage etc. In this connection, the Protocol has provisions that aim to improve the image and role of African women by improving public awareness through formal and informal education and outreach programmes.

Articles 6 and 7: Marriage, separation, divorce and annulment of marriage

Women are discriminated against in marriage and family law, sometimes as wives and sometimes as daughters. In all categories of marriage in Africa (statutory, customary and religious) the husband is assumed to be the head of the family and the provider (and hence able to make decisions and receive benefits for the family). Wife battering (called ‘chastisement’) is accepted as a norm in some cultures and there is no minimum age for marriage. Furthermore, wives have lesser rights in choice of marriage partner, divorce or child custody and have lesser right to inheritance.

The Protocol provides that women and men should enjoy equal rights and be regarded as equal partners in marriage. Marriage will take place only with the full consent of both parties. Cases of forced and early marriage persist in Africa and the situation of the girl child remains a matter of concern. The Protocol also requires that marriages are registered in accordance with national laws in order to be legally recognised. In cases of separation, divorce or annulment, women and men should have the right to an equitable share of the joint property deriving from the marriage.

Article 8: Access to Justice and Equal Protection by the Law

Some forms of discrimination against women stem from the varying understandings and beliefs about what society or culture prescribes for women. Since most family issues never go to court for resolution, it is the often conservative and restrictive everyday beliefs of husbands, brothers, fathers, cousins, uncles and nephews, which govern women’s lives. In this regard the Protocol provides that women and men are equal before the law and shall have the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. States parties are to ensure effective women’s access to judicial and legal services, including legal aid, sensitise everyone to the rights of women and reform existing discriminatory laws and practices in order to promote and protect the rights of women.

Article 9: Right to Participation in the Political and Decision-Making Processes

Women’s equal rights to participate in decision-making are beyond a question of democracy and good governance; it is also a necessary condition for the effective recognition of women’s interests, without which the objectives of sustainable equality and development will never be achieved. Caution is needed, however, as the participation of women in government does not necessarily translate into pro-woman policies. The value of this aspect of the Protocol is therefore predicated not only on taking part in government, but in doing so in a way that is consistent with the specific needs of women.

Decision-making involvement is imperative to the Protocol, which states that women must be able to participate in government and politics. While women are prominent in grassroots organisations, they are left out of the vitally important decision-making at policy level, and so their specific concerns and needs are ignored.

Article 10: Right to peace

Women are rarely included in decision-making on conflict prevention, resolution and management, or even in peace-building initiatives. Women’s voices go unheard during formal peace negotiations, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, the creation of new constitutions, elections, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and the establishment of judicial systems. This occurs even though the violence perpetuated against women is exacerbated during times of conflict, and they make up the majority of all victims. Women and children are the most vulnerable and at the receiving end of most of the worst excesses and abuses in situations of conflicts.

The Protocol defends the right of women to a peaceful existence and the participation of women in the promotion and maintenance of peace. State parties are to take appropriate measures to ensure the increased participation of women in the peace process through the promotion of a peace culture; protection of refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and displaced persons; and reduced military expenditure in favour of spending on social development.

Article 11: Protection of women in armed conflict

Conflict is a critical part of transformation and change, restructuring the social relationship between peoples and also within their own groups. Generalised and unnecessary suffering result when latent conflicts escalate into confrontation. Several African countries have been, and some still are, embroiled in war, civil strife and conflict caused by a combination of factors including massive violations of human rights and ethnic violence. These situations usually impact heavily on women and children, resulting in violence, involuntary displacement and flight from their country of origin. Violations of the fundamental rights of women and girls are widespread during times of armed conflict. These include torture, rape and murder and should not be condoned.

Towards this direction state parties are to respect the rules of international humanitarian law applicable in conflict situations and protect women affected by conflicts making sure that perpetrators are brought to justice before a competent criminal jurisdiction. State parties shall also ensure that no child, especially girls under eighteen years take part in hostilities.

Article 12: Education and Training

African women face a sombre scene filled with economic and socio-political problems which hinder their efforts at meeting basic needs. The lack of education for a considerable number of African women prevents society as a whole from facing these problems with vigour and determination. If the situation of women in Africa is to change for the better the quality of education must not only be improved, but women and girls should have easy access to education, while overcoming every hurdle that hinders their active participation in the educational process.

To this regard the Protocol guarantees an education for women and girls with the intention of breaking down social and cultural barriers, which have discouraged and even excluded women and girls from the benefits of regular educational programmes as well as promoting equal opportunities for them in all aspects of life.

Article 13: Economic and social welfare rights

Poverty in Africa manifests itself in various forms and has its origin in a lack of income, the unequal distribution of wealth and income, economic recession, drought, heavy debt burdens and unfavourable conditionalities tied to borrowing from international financial institutions, armed conflict, civil strife, etc. More than a third of the people of Africa are unable to meet their most basic needs. The heavy burden of poverty falls disproportionately on women, especially female-headed households. The feminisation of poverty is an ugly reality. Although generally speaking women constitute more than half of the population, they have limited access to and ownership of land and housing yet they provide the greater percentage of food supply.

Women in Africa need to be empowered to participate in economic structures and policy formulation in the production process itself. Women’s empowerment will enhance their capacity to realistically alter the direction of change for their own well-being and that of society as a whole. In this regard, the Protocol recommends promotion of equality of access to employment and equal remuneration for women and men, and ensures transparency in the recruitment, promotion and dismissal of women. It also combats and punishes sexual harassment in the workplace.

Article 14: Health and reproductive rights

Women’s health and reproductive rights are central to the realisation of their potential. Their ability to exercise control over their fertility is a crucial step in enabling them to make the necessary choices in other areas. Women’s, and particularly adolescent girls’, sexuality and fertility pose a high health risk. They contribute significantly to girls’ inability to attain high levels of education and unsafe abortions lead to maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS.

The subordinate position of women and adolescent girls, with younger women being the least empowered, and their lack of access to information, education and communication, health facilities, training, an independent income, property and legal rights, make them particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection. They lack adequate knowledge about the disease and the measures that have been taken to prevent them from infection.

In this regard the Protocol provides women with the right to control their fertility, choose any method of contraception and to have family planning education, while state parties have, among other things, to protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape and incest and where continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or foetus.

If states are to ensure the equality of women and men in access to health care services as is expected of them they would have to remove any legal or social barriers which may operate to prevent or discourage women from making full use of available health care services. Concrete steps therefore need to be taken to ensure access to healthcare services for all women, including those whose access may be impeded through poverty, illiteracy or physical isolation.

Article 15: Right to food security

The struggle against poverty, the economic empowerment of women and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for women is a moral, political and economic obligation and the responsibility of national governments and the international community. Women and other people living in poverty represent an under-utilisation of productive potential. Women’s deprived rights to development should be recognised. This requires policies that are gender sensitive, including gender-based anti-poverty policies. Besides income poverty, other areas of deprivation for women include social discrimination, exclusion, desertion, physical disability, vulnerability and deprivation. There is also poverty associated with wars, famine, displacement and refugees, unbalanced trade relations and structural adjustment programmes (SAPs).

Some of the measures recommended by the Protocol to combat this are to provide women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land and the means of producing nutritious food and also adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security. One point that is clear however is that unless states parties guarantee women financial independence, they will not have true equality with men because they will not be able to head their own households, own their own homes, or start their own businesses.

Article 16: Right to adequate housing

Despite the active role of African women in the management and creation of urban and rural environments, they are discriminated against in their access to adequate housing and control of land and property. In some countries, legislation, tradition and harmful religious practices prevent women from inheriting and having control over property and so deprive them of their rights to adequate housing. Considering the challenges faced by women in both rural and urban areas, governments should consider that households and household members move from one end of the continuum to the other and it is necessary to provide infrastructure and services along the continuum without putting undue emphasis on one at the expense of the other.

Compared to men, women are more burdened with the rural-urban linkages. They have to move between the extreme ends of the continuum trying to make ends meet for their households. Supporting women’s efforts under the circumstances requires making their daily routine activities such as ensuring availability of water, energy and food easier, be it in the rural, or urban areas. This assurance makes it possible not only to engage in long term economic planning but also avails time for critical thinking and engagement in the socio- economic and political life of their communities. These measures are required if the states are to keep the promise of the Protocol to provide African women equal access to housing and to acceptable living conditions in a healthy environment.

Article 17: Right to a positive cultural context

African societies are products of historical evolution, enriched by diverse cultures. Individuals within those societies have their collective identities as members of families, communities, religious groups, etc. The delicate balance between the rights of the individual and society and the groups within society should be respected. Women, being among the most vulnerable and marginalised, need to be integrated in order to reconnect them with the community by making all the institutions of society more accessible to them. This article addresses discrimination against women in the private sphere, including discrimination in the area of family law.

In this regard, the Protocol provides that women will have the right to live in a positive cultural context and to participate at all levels in the determination of cultural policies. We should not be oblivious to the fact that this area of discrimination, based on long- standing cultural and religious practice is one of the most difficult areas to penetrate and one of the most resistant to change. Yet the drafters of Protocol realised that change in this area is essential in order for African women to attain full equality.

Article 18: Right to a healthy and sustainable environment

Poverty is a major cause and consequence of environmental degradation and is compounded by scarcity, depletion and the mismanagement of resources. Environmental degradation has had, and continues to have, an adverse impact on the population as a whole. Women experience this impact particularly in the traditional divisions of labour. This has resulted in an increase in their workload of domestic chores. Often, women have no choice other than to exploit natural resources in order to survive even when they know about the importance of protecting the environment and its sustainability.

As the majority of the world’s poor, women play decisive roles in managing and preserving biodiversity, water, land and other natural resources, yet their centrality is often ignored or exploited. This means that a chance for better management of those resources is lost, along with opportunities for greater diversity, productivity for human sustenance and economic development. Moreover, while environmental degradation has severe consequences for all humans, it particularly affects women and children.

Towards this end, states shall ensure greater involvement of women in planning, management and preservation of the environment and the sustainable use of natural resources at all levels.

Article 19 Right to sustainable development

Recently, African governments have slowly begun to see the political and socio-economic participation of women as a key factor and catalyst for the accelerated advancement of women and the society as a whole. In this respect, some African governments have established national machineries to be responsible for coordinating the gender perspective in overall national development activities. However, governments still have a lot to do to see that women fully enjoy their right to sustainable development.

For example, in many countries women still do not have the same property rights as men. Traditional property law often discriminates against women in that only male children are able to inherit the family land and husbands have automatic ownership over all of their wife’s property upon marriage. Similarly, legislation in a number of countries establishes that the administration of family property is to be undertaken by the male head of the family – thereby excluding women.

The Protocol enjoins governments to take tangible steps to ensure the participation of women at all levels of decision-making, implementation and evaluation of development policies and programmes, to promote their access to credit, training and skills development and also to ensure that the negative effects of globalisation are reduced to the minimum for women.

Articles 20: Widows’ rights

The need to address the plight of widows cannot be overemphasised. In many African cultures, widows have suffered from a regressive heritage that results in their being ostracised from their communities at worst or being discriminated against at best. It is not uncommon for a widow to be labelled 'a witch' who is responsible for the death of her husband. She is consequently dispossessed of all her family’s assets, denied property rights, and left to grapple alone with her liabilities.

The Protocol states that widows should not to be subjected to inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment, that they should automatically become the custodian of their children, unless this is contrary to the children's interests and welfare, and that they should have the right to marry the person of their choice. It also states that women and men shall have the right to inherit in equitable shares, their parent’s properties.

Article 21: Right to inheritance

In adjudicating on inheritance rights for women there is a wide gap in both law and practice. This is especially so where it allows for the application of customary law under which a marriage was enacted which varies from community to community. In most communities, a woman takes nothing with her upon dissolution of marriage. The fact remains that the legal system allowing application of customary law upon divorce puts women in very vulnerable situations because cultural norms are mostly discriminatory towards women. They therefore get a raw deal even when it comes to legal redress because the outcome will be based upon gender- biased cultural practices and the whims and caprices of gender- blind judges who are themselves products of a predominantly patriarchal culture.

The protocol senses the dire need for gender responsive policies to ensure equitable access to and ownership and control of (both movable and unmovable property) as a step towards achieving the goal of women’s empowerment. It will also be a critical step towards ensuring equitable distribution of resources, poverty alleviation and overall national development.

Article 22 Special protection for elderly women

While women can look forward to a longer life than men, they are expected to continue suffering from gender discrimination even in their old age. Widowhood is more prevalent among women because they live longer and usually marry men older than themselves. Women suffer from high rates of disability at older ages because of the lack of good health care, education and nutrition in earlier life.

The rights of elderly women are being violated without them getting any redress in many African countries. Older women are leaving their communities in fear of being killed, and, if not killed, rejected by their own families. It is not uncommon to find elderly women wandering in town and living as beggars with nobody to care for their sustenance.

It is relieving to know that the Protocol puts the plight of this category of women into perspective, recommending state protection for them and ensuring their right to freedom from violence including sexual abuse, discrimination based on age and the right to be treated with dignity.

Article 23: Special protection of women with disabilities

State parties are to take special measures to ensure the protection of women with disabilities and take specific measures to facilitate their access to employment, professional and vocational training as well as their participation in decision- making and also make sure they are free from violence and discrimination based on their disability.

Article 24: Protection of special women

These include women in detention, poor women and women heads of family. State parties are to ensure their protection from marginalisation and provide an environment suitable to their condition and their special physical, economic and social needs.

The African Court

The promises in the Protocol cannot be actualised merely by the enactment of gender- neutral laws alone. Measures have to be put in place to ensure that African women are able to enjoy the promise of the Protocol. In article 27 of the Protocol, The African Court is bestowed with the responsibility of interpretation of matters arising from the application or implementation of the Protocol. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is to take on the duties of adjudicating matters of the Protocol pending the establishment of the African Court. [5] The African Court was constituted in February 2006. However, it is sad to note that of the nine Judges appointed to the court only two are women.

Entry into force

The Protocol entered into force in November, 2006, thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth Instrument of ratification.[6] Nineteen states have presently ratified the protocol, though a few states did so with reservations. The interdependence and indivisibility of all rights is a long-accepted and consistently re-affirmed principle. In practice this means that respect for one proviso cannot be separated from the enjoyment of another proviso. That means for example that genuine economic and social development requires political and educational development to participate in this process. In as much as states can make reservations to some articles before ratification, universality is a desirable principle that should guide African states in ratifying the Protocol. The fact that states could ratify with reservations is a situation of accepting the better of two evils, while none of them is desirable, the lesser evil can be tolerated. While historical, cultural and religious differences must be borne in mind, it is the duty of every state, regardless of its political economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights. I use this opportunity to call on states that have ratified with reservations to emulate the good example set by the Gambia and lift their reservations.

Conclusion

The concept of equality means much more than treating all persons in the same way. Experience has shown that equal treatment of persons in unequal situations will operate to perpetuate, rather than eradicate injustice. True equality can only emerge from efforts directed towards addressing and correcting these situational imbalances. Overall, therefore, despite regional and individual efforts made by the international community and local and international NGOs to improve the status of African women, only modest progress has been made and the Protocol seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel for African women. The Protocol promises to be an extremely useful framework for advancing the rights of women in Africa. Only time will tell if it will actually fulfil these promises or not. However, we must bear in mind that in the final analysis it is the responsibility of all of us, not just the government and its institutions, to ensure an Africa where women enjoy their full human rights on the basis of equality with men.

* Musa works with African Women’s Development and Communications Network, FEMNET, Nairobi, Kenya

References

A Simplified Version of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 2004, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Lagos, Nigeria

Advancing Women’s Status: Gender, Society and Development, Women and Men Together, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

African Union and SOAWR, Breathing Life into the African Union Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa, (unpublished)

African Union, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

African Union, Protocol to the Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

Arusa Mahin Karim, 1998, Human Rights Protection in the African Regional System, Pretoria, South Africa

Asma Abdel Halim et al, Claiming Our Place, Institute of Women, Law and Development, Washington, USA

Barbara K (2002), Gender and Debt, AFRODAD, Harare, Zinbabwe
Edward O. et al, (2000) The Cost of Globalisation, Geneva, Switzerland

http://www.globalrights.org

http://www.international-alert.org

http://www.siyanda.org

http://www.unifem.org

http://www.unifenpacific.org/gender_tradehtml

http://www.unorg/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/armed.htm

Margaret S. et al, African Women and Development (1995), Johannesburg, South Africa

Patricia A. Made et al, Beyond Beijing: Strategies Towards Women’s Equality, 1999, Harare Zimbabwe

The African Union Commission, (2004) The Road to Gender Equality in Africa: An Overview, Ethiopia

United Nations Convention on Discrimination Against Women, 2000, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Kampala, Uganda

United States Research for Social Development, 2005, Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World, Paris, France

Notes:

[1]United Nations Charter
[2] refers collectively to three instruments: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols
[3] Article 2
[4] Article 66, ACHPR
[5] Article 32, The Protocol
[6] Article 29, The Protocol

Although the agreement that ended 21 years of civil war in Sudan goes by the title of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Roselynn Musa points out that in order for something to be comprehensive it must be all-inclusive. Yet, when it comes to the inclusion of women, this is not the case, with the agreement being full of gaps on women’s representation. Sustainable peace, she warns, will be achieved only if women and men are considered.

Africa has witnessed and continues to witness armed conflicts, especially ethnic conflict. According to UN statistics more than thirty wars have occurred in Africa since 1970. While these wars have had a devastating impact on the African population, both soldiers and civilians, African women in particular have been more affected than any other group. It is now common knowledge to all and sundry that women are usually the most affected in any war situation and the last consulted on subsequent peace negotiations. Apart from loosing their lives, women’s rights have been greatly abused during and after the wars. The case is not different in Sudan where women were not consulted or included in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and mention of women was minimal and vague.

Inclusion of Sudanese women is imperative because women’s rights are human rights and women have borne the burden of war and paid their dues for the cost of peace. Moreover peace, democracy and justice are fundamental concerns that need to be addressed by all Sudanese and not just a section of them. Women and children suffer more deeply and intensely the physical and emotional pains of conflict than their male counterparts because women are both primary and secondary targets of conflict. Women suffer deeply and often in silence.

The issues are that despite existing commitments like the UN Resolution 1325, Beijing+10, Nairobi+ 20, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, IGAD Gender Policy, Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, National Constitutions etc African women and girls continue to experience gross forms of abuse and remain at the margins of peace negotiations and post- conflict planning.

The Peace Protocols signed in January 2005 represent a qualitative transformation in Sudan’s modern history. It is a political agreement that brought the war to a close and established a new political context that embraces many issues that were neglected or side lined in previous peace agreements. The agreements include protocols on state and religion, self-determination, power sharing, security, a ceasefire agreement and a separate set of modalities.

The CPA represents a political and social instrument that aims to reform the conditions in Sudan through shaping new understandings and establishing grounds for the flourishing of new social power. It is supposed to constitute a Comprehensive Peace Agreement, yet one would expect that for something to be comprehensive it must be all- inclusive. Nevertheless the CPA is evidently full of gaps on women’s representation and the position of women in it is ambiguous.

South Sudan is a state emerging from a civil war that lasted over 21 years. The current healing and rehabilitation processes focus on the soldiers and men to the exclusion of women and children. In the few occasions where women are involved they hardly do more than act as gender advisers in peace operations. They need to do more than that by participating throughout and in all positions.

The CPA states inter alia that:

- The state shall guarantee equal rights of men and women to the full enjoyment of all civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights;
- The state shall promote women’s rights through affirmative action;
- The state shall combat harmful customs and tradition, which undermine the dignity and status of women;
- The state shall provide maternity and child care and medical care for pregnant women.

But in conducting a gender analysis of the CPA it is important to note the following points:

- Gender and women was mentioned in the six protocols only a few times;
- While gender policy and women empowerment are mentioned in the competency of each level of government , there are no targets, indicators and time lines for their achievement;
- The formula agreed for regional and political representation was not extended to women;
- Ethnic and religious chauvinism that has excluded or marginalised the vast majority of its citizens were listed as some of the roots causes of the crisis, yet this definition has not taken into account the marginalisation of Sudanese women and the fact that it could lead to conflict;
- The Machakos protocol mentions a framework for governance through which power and wealth shall be equitably shared, and human rights guaranteed but there is no mention of women in the criteria of sharing power and wealth of the nation;
- The fact that women bore the brunt of war for twenty-one years was not considered as a criteria for equitable sharing and allocation of wealth;
- Women are subjected to cultural and traditional attitudes leading to lack of participation in decision- making;
- Many women are not aware of their rights;
- Women’s participation in government in many cases are through tokenism by governments that are headed by men.

Resolution 1325 recognises that if societies are governed in a way which marginalises the views and experiences of women and girls, this carries a cost. The role of women is crucial in preserving social order, and as peace educators, both in their families and in their societies, thereby playing an important role in fostering a culture of peace in strife-torn communities and societies.

If women are to play an equal part in maintaining peace, they must be empowered politically and economically, and represented adequately at all levels of decision making both at the pre-conflict stage and during hostilities, as well as at the point of peace keeping, peace building, reconciliation and reconstruction. I have witnessed an occasion in which a minister in the government of Sudan was challenged on why Sudanese women were side-lined in the peace discussions and agreements. He rationalized the position of the government, stating an instance when women were asked to send their representatives to a forum and they did not come up with one. If that was the case then it is not surprising because it is not enough to ask women to participate in peace discussions and negotiations. As a pre-requisite, Sudanese women need to have their capacities built towards that direction so that they can function well as peace negotiators. That is to say that Sudanese women are not just agitating for numerical increase to their participation alone, but to be in a position to make qualitative contributions that will make a difference. They should not just be there to complete the number required. Obviously that was the point they tried to make when they declined to send women to the forum.

In order for the CPA to adequately consider the unique contribution that women can make towards peace, the following recommendations are important:

- Women should be encouraged to play active roles in dialogue and arbitration among warring sides. They generally have special gifts for these and are able to sacrifice personal ego for the greater good of the community. They are excellent in maintaining peace and promoting harmony. Their insights easily provide a way forward for communities that are not able to reconcile their personal and communal conflicts. Given the role women play in society and the fact that they are more intent on reaching a compromise for the sake of the greater good of the community, there ought to be an insistence that women participate in all peace initiatives with at least 30% participation.

It is not enough to pass laws on the minimum number of women to be included in peace negotiations, it is also important to allow them to choose who among them will best represent their interests and articulate their views. Women know one another more and since they interact with each other more than they interact with men, especially in the more reserved areas and cultures. By letting women choose among them who will be their representatives, they will be more confident in the negotiation process as well as the negotiator and they will be more willing to make their views known. This will ensure that their input is made in the peace initiatives and will avert a situation where issues that affect them in times of conflict are wholly ignored.

- The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has been hailed as one of the most comprehensive instruments on the rights of women. It has however not been ratified in many countries and even where this has been done, implementation is wanting. CEDAW needs to be ratified and implemented in all countries so that women’s rights are respected and promoted even in times of conflict. This will provide a legal framework within which women’s rights will thrive, and when these rights are violated, women will be able to assert them.

- It is necessary also to ensure that women are included at all levels if decision making fora and in all issues that affect society. Women are usually excluded from these fora on the premise that decision-making is a male preserve and this in turn translates into a situation where women are left out of the very processes that dictate their lives.

- Women’s concerns should be incorporated in the peace negotiations. It is not enough that women be given the opportunity to speak at the peace making fora, the concerns raised should be taken into account whenever arriving at a decision. Measures should be put in place to ensure that women’s concerns are not ignored once they have been brought to the attention of the peace negotiators.

- Complete political, social and economic equality of all sexes should be spelt out in all peace agreements. This will serve to ensure that equality is maintained alongside peace. These initiatives should further be incorporated in the constitution to give them legal backing.

- Sudanese women should be more aggressive in demanding their rights because no one will drop it on their laps. They should rise up to the challenge of rising up to their rights without fear of giving in to intimidation.

- The educated Sudanese women should work with and carry along women in the grassroots. This will enable them to speak with one voice. This will also dispel animosity or mistrust that may come about if one group feel sidelined or ignored by the other due to parallel activities undertaken by both sets of women. When these sets of women work together in harmony, they will complement each other and implement activities that serve both their interests and by extension, the society at large.

- There is need to revisit the common agenda developed for Sudanese women to identify areas of priority and adopt areas of intervention. This is because society is dynamic and regular reviews should be made to ensure that the agenda remains to their needs and concerns.

- Civil society organisations, international organisations and political parties should coordinate their efforts and pool their resources towards achieving their common goals. This will create a situation where focussed activities are implemented and greater resources are availed to implement then. This in turn will be of great benefit to Sudanese women.

- The manifestoes of political parties should be engendered to encourage Sudanese women to join the political fray. Sudanese women will be more interested in politics if the environment is not hostile to their gender. It is also essential that political party members undergo capacity building sessions focussing on gender issues and concepts. This will enable them to dispel misconceptions they may have about women in politics.

- Working with the media can create significant opportunities for Sudanese women and girls, especially those living in the rural areas. Articles in newspapers and publications of general interest will sensitise the society on gender issues and those involved in gender advocacy initiatives need to work with the media.

- Gender stereotypes are often ingrained in members of the society at an early age and these stereotypical ideas later manifest themselves in discrimination against women. These notions lead women to believe that they are well suited for certain roles and should shun others. As such, gender sensitisation and civic education should be included in educational curriculum to reverse this trend.

It goes even without mentioning that Sudanese women have made some gains in recent times in the campaign for the agitation for their rights. They should be proud of their accomplishments and celebrate the gains they have made, no matter how small, rather than down-play their successes.

Conclusion

Both war and peace are gendered experiences and women and men are bound to have different priorities and expectations in a peace process. Sustainable peace will therefore be achieved only if women and men are considered. It is pertinent to bear in mind that the building and construction of especially Southern Sudan requires the participation, effort and contribution of everyone from all levels to focus collectively to build the war-torn country regardless of political, ethnic, gender, religious and other differences, where everyone will live with dignity, respect and equal opportunity. Women need to be encouraged to play active roles in dialogue and arbitration among the warring sides.

It is commendable that Sudanese women have now realised the fact that they will not be helped unless they start by helping themselves. It is worth mentioning that towards this direction they have been holding consultative meetings, prominent among which was the Donors’ Conference for Sudan, which took place from April 11 to 12, 2005 in Oslo, Norway. In a statement at the end of the conference the women’s group reiterated its principle of equal representation for women and men, pegging the minimum at thirty percent. The group, in addition to other pressing demands, also asked for urgent programmes for addressing negative custom and religious practices which continue to foster women’s marginalisation in all spheres of life.

Women’s immense contribution towards development is unquestionable and their participation in peace building and peace keeping is therefore crucial for the prevention of conflict and the sustainability of peace initiatives. Women as well as men have much to offer in terms of skills on the negotiating table and a lot to gain when peace is gained, therefore integrating a gender perspective into peace building in reconstruction is an essential step in the process of ensuring democratic decision making at all levels of society. Decision makers who invoke and manipulate gender to justify armed conflict and similarly exclude women from conflict resolution are gambling with the safety and security of women, men and children throughout Africa and this must be challenged with renewed energy.

* Roselynn Musa works for The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) in Kenya and has been involved with the Solidarity on African Women’s Rights, a coalition of women’s organizations working to ratify and domesticate the Protocol on African Women’s Rights.

* Please send comments to

The right to education is an integral part of the new African Protocol on Women’s Rights, argues Roselynn Musa. Gender inequalities in education translate into larger socio-economic disparities, and affect not only individuals, but the social and economic development of communities and nations. The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa offers a powerful tool for remedying these disparities, and addresses not only the grassroots level of the classroom, but also the political processes that grant women access to decision-making.

Everyone has a right to education states the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), but today more than half a century after this historic text was adopted, the right to education remains an empty promise for millions of people all over the world, especially women and girls. During the last decade there have been improvements in basic education for women in many countries. A number of countries recorded increased growth in the number of enrolment of both girls and boys. At the same time many African countries have made progress in reducing illiteracy levels, particularly among women and girls. However, despite these improvements only 58% of children of school age are actually enrolled in school (World Conference on Education for All, UNESO, Paris, 2000). With few exceptions educational statistics show large gender disparities. Female-male school enrolment, retention and completion favour boys in a majority of countries. Moreover, African women have the highest illiteracy rate in the world, which in some countries is rising. In addition gender disparities in schooling undermine national efforts for human capital development, thereby slowing down the pace of social and economic development.

The right to education is a human right having major implications for both individuals as well as for social and economic development. Education of women in Africa is imperative given the inverse relationship between female education and other aspects of development.

The educational system in Africa generally reflects gender inequalities. Gender refers not just to women, but also to both men and women, and to the interaction between them. It is important to understand the differences between men and women that are externally influenced, as well as the conditions imposed on them that are based on naturally given biological differences. Gender analysis therefore has to do with both sexes in relation to each other, not in isolation. Furthermore, an understanding of gender does not imply that all women are alike. Race, ethnicity, class, nationality, age, etc, are other factors that may cause significant differences among women themselves and among men as well.

The purpose of looking at gender is not to divide men and women, causing conflict between them, rather it draws our attention to those issues that have brought about unequal relations, and allows us to address these issues with appropriate measures that will help reduce rather than perpetuate inequality. Thus the concept of gender helps focus on growth in terms of equitable distribution of benefits between women and men, equality and power relations between them and, most of all, partnership between them in all fields of development.

Gender equality is based on the premise that all human beings, women and men are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypes, rigid gender roles and prejudices. Gender equality means that the different behaviour, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered, valued and favoured equally. It does not mean that women and men have become the same, but rather their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they were born male or female.

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa will come into force in November 2005. Article thirty-two of the protocol covers a broad range of human rights issues and advances the human rights for African women through creative, substantive and detailed language. Article 12 addresses the right to education and training.

One of the challenges to women’s educational empowerment in Africa is that decisions on what is to be learnt, at what level and by who are male dominated thus perpetuating gender-based stereotypes. This renders the curriculum inappropriate for the promotion and protection of women’s human rights. While the level of women’s participation is on the increase, certain socio-cultural constraints impede women’s access to vocational, scientific and technical education.

The Protocol obligates state parties to take positive actions to promote women’s education at all levels and in all disciplines. One of the measures that could be useful in addressing gender imbalances in education and training, is for countries to institute and strengthen affirmative action measures including scholarships at all levels for female students, distance and non-formal education and literacy programmes for women, innovative and aggressive strategies to redress the under-representation of women and girls in sciences, mathematics and technology-related disciplines and careers, including the promotion of science among children in general and young girls in particular. Women’s access to professional training should be strengthened.

Women need broad humanistic and scientific education for the same reasons men do, so they can understand and appreciate life, give intellectual and political leadership and make the greatest contribution of which they are capable. In addition to this, the main financial partners of Africa’s educational systems should show their firm commitment to the female population in their interventionist policies.

We must find ways to preserve what remains of our customs while at the same time refuse to accept those aspects of tradition that treat women and children as less than human. For example, the belief that investing in girls’ education is a waste of time and money. This has had and will continue to have devastating consequences on women unless something urgent is done.

Because most programmes for women’s economic development, educational and political equality bow to patriarchal culture and societal imposed stereotypes they are replete with fundamental conceptual flaws.

Approaches that focus on the law while ignoring culture are not likely to turn women’s situation around. We should strive for a condition in which women and men are equal both in laws and facts. If that happens to be the case then our problems will only be solved in fractions, even when we have fifty per cent female representation in positions of power, because these same women are the wives, sisters, daughters, etc of the men out there who the patriarchal system has placed above and therefore superior to women. This approach will be flawed because it refuses to address the cultural factors that impede women’s progress. Because of the current situation of inequality, gender equality cannot be achieved without the empowerment of women especially in the field of education.

Human rights education goes beyond cognitive learning and includes the social and emotional development of all those involved in the educational process. It should aim at developing a culture in which human rights are taught, practised and lived within the school community and spread through interaction with the wider community. Introducing human rights education therefore implies that the school becomes a model of human rights learning and practice. Teachers, as the main depositories of the curriculum, play a key role in reaching this goal.

Some of the factors militating against women’s educational empowerment include, but are not limited to: poverty; sexual abuse/ harassment and rape, which prevent some parents from sending their female children to school; child prostitution; insufficient infrastructure; gender-unfriendly school environment and curricula; gender stereotypes and preference in sending boys to school than girls; workload of the girl child; early marriages/pregnancies; high rate of drop out among girls, especially at secondary and tertiary institutions and lack of gender parity; and lack of policy and monitoring mechanisms. In consideration of some of these the protocol addresses the issue of sexual harassment and the need to introduce human rights education in schools and at the same time make counseling available to students.

The attacks or assaults on female education are manifestations of the same desire to mute the voice of women. The field of science and technology remains almost solely a man’s domain and the very few women that have ‘dared’ to venture there and have done well are seen as the exception rather than the rule. Gone are the days when women and girls are only trained in cooking, embroidery, home economics, etc

An educational system that is designed to subordinate and invalidate women’s experiences vis-à-vis the terrible illiteracy in which so many of our sisters are kept is not just the consequences of poverty, over- work and discrimination within the family, and by extension, the society, but it is also a social mechanism designed to ensure female acquiescence and deny women a public voice, or even a private one for that matter. Education is a powerful tool for empowerment and non-conformity, but ironically, the economic and social development of countries around the world is hampered by shortages of skilled men and women and confounded by widespread ignorance and indifference. If the capacity of people to shape and improve their own lives is the measure of development then educational empowerment of women is a necessary condition as well as a human right.

Achieving gender equality requires specific measures that go beyond the equal treatment of women and men. Such measures must address the politics, laws, procedures, norms, beliefs, practices and attitudes that maintain gender equality. Women must have the capacity to make informed choices about their lives. Efforts to achieve equality between women and men that use a ‘one size fits all’ approach may not take into account the discrimination existing in the past. Fathers, husbands and even brothers may also suppress the potentials of their daughters, wives and sisters because they do not wish them to have an independent identity. It will also be necessary to involve gender-sensitive men in the campaign in order to make a good headway.

Though there has been a great breakthrough in the matter of gender equality, a lot still needs to be done. Discrimination against women continues and practices subordinating women to men and considering girls lower to boys remain in force. The domestication of international, regional and national instruments on women and girls’ rights and the enforcement of existing legislation remain low. Women and girls’ access to justice systems is limited by legal illiteracy, lack of resources and gender insensitivity and bias of law enforcement agents. Violence against women and girls, including rape and domestic violence is rampant, particularly in conflict zones. Some traditional and cultural practices continue to inhibit progress in promoting women and girls’ human rights. In some countries, women are denied equal rights to inherit property, while in others several sources of laws continue to govern their lives and restrict the enjoyment of their rights.

The question to ask is, where are we going and how do we get there? It is an enormous task because when we zero in on women we are confronted by a plight so grim it can break our hearts. We should not be bought over by the gullibility of the larger society that thinks that if the government can just pass the right laws then women will become equal. It is not enough that the government passes a law that says all forms of discrimination against women should be eliminated [Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, Article 12(1a.)] and then women and men are automatically equal. It is naïve to think that just the passing of laws will help women. It has to be backed by action.

Deep and sustainable transformations require a strategic and political vision to the highest level and that is why the protocol has resolved to achieve necessary cultural and institutional transformation in the educational system. One of the initiatives to be taken on the part of the states is the introduction of human rights education in the educational curricula as stated in the protocol.

One of the measures that could be taken to address gender imbalances in education is for countries to institute and strengthen affirmative action measures including scholarships at all levels for female students, distance and non-formal education and literacy programmes for women and girls especially in the sciences and technically oriented disciplines.

Successful strategies for improving girls’ access to and retention in education should be scaled up. The content and culture of schooling should not discriminate against women and girls. One way to bring this about is curriculum reform, gender training for teachers and other people working in the field of curriculum development and for girls and boys generally. This should also include gender-focussed programmes for girls and boys.

A web does not move if you pull only one strand; that way all you do is break it. There is a need to adopt a participatory and multi-disciplinary approach to policy development by involving NGOs, teachers associations and unions, professional and research bodies, and other stakeholders in the preparation of educational policy texts, promoting a human rights based approach to school, governance, management, discipline procedures and other regulations and practices affecting the school culture and access to education.

Human rights education implies changes in the whole educational system. Policy statements and verbal commitments alone are not enough to ensure educational changes. Implementation of the policy should therefore not lie with the Ministries of Education alone, but should involve other stakeholders. There is a political will by government to get girls into schools and bursaries for girls, but more needs to be done in this direction.

In conclusion, some schools already have human rights based clubs; this should be encouraged, while schools that don’t have them should be encouraged to introduce them. In addition, increasing campaigns for girls’ enrolment for science based subjects, reviewing of the school curricular and text books to portray gender sensitive issues and language, providing adult education to older women, increasing the budget for education by government – these are all actions that would take things in the right direction. Human rights education should start at childhood.

* Roselynn Musa works for The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) in Kenya and has been involved with the Solidarity on African Women’s Rights, a coalition of women’s organizations working to ratify and domesticate the Protocol on African Women’s Rights.

* Please send comments to [email protected]