Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki fell further behind his main challenger, Raila Odinga, in opinion polls on Friday, just three weeks before elections that are expected to be the East African country's closest. The latest Steadman poll gave opposition leader Odinga 46% to Kibaki's 42%. Its last poll two weeks ago had the 76-year-old incumbent running neck-and-neck with Odinga, with both on 43,3%.

We as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sexed people (LGBTI), activists in the human and legal rights sector, feminists, trade unions, activists in the women and HIV/AIDS sectors as well as individuals from diverse backgrounds, constituting the South African civil society;

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

Sokari Ekine has been part-time online news editor for Pambazuka News since the beginning of 2007. This week is, sadly, her last week in this post. During her period as online news editor Sokari has developed Pambazuka News to ever greater heights, establishing its reach well beyond what we had previously managed. The quality of authors and articles that she brought to Pambazuka News has been extraordinary. Sokari leaves the position of online news editor at the end of November, but she will continue to write for Pambazuka News in her regular blogs round-up column. We espect that Sokari will continue to be involved in many other ways with Fahamu and Pambazuka News. We are sure that we speak for all our readers in saying ‘thank you for all you have done and best wishes for the future’.

Meanwhile, we are pleased to announce that Mukoma wa Ngugi has joined the Pambazuka News team as Co-Editor. Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (KPH, 2003). A political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine, his essays and articles have appeared in the LA Times, Mail and Guardian, Business Daily Africa and the Sunday Nation amongst other places, as well as in Pambazuka News. In addition to his editorial duties at Pambazuka News, his current projects are: editing an anthology of New Kenyan Writing for Ishmael Reed Publications (forthcoming in 2008) and co-organizing a Pan African Youth Peace Caravan – Cape to Cairo in 2010.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that Joshua Ogada, who has worked heroically as part time editor of the Links and Resources section of Pambazuka News will now be working with us full-time as Assistant Editor. Tidiane Kasse continues as Editor of the French edition, and Hakima Abbas as editor of AU-Monitor.

The purpose of this panel discussion, to be held on Wednesday, 5 December, 2007 is to raise awareness about human trafficking as an issue relevant to gender, gender violence and human rights within the National 16 Days of Activism Campaign. This panel brings together a panel of experts and opinion makers to highlight the problem of human trafficking as a gender, human rights and policy issue, to share experiences of how such problems are being addressed, and to stimulate public discussion and media coverage on this issue during the 16 Days of Activism Campaign.

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

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

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

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

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

* what lessons have been learned in the process?

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

A new agenda

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four countries, four experiences

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next stage

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

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

Irene Sithole writes that Zimbabwe's women suffer violence in all environments including work place, the home and the political arena.

In Zimbabwe, violence against women continues to be a challenge with hardly a day passing without at least one case reported in the media. Women suffer violence in all environments including work place, the home and the political arena. Domestic Violence is the most common and pervasive form of violence against women in Zimbabwe. The problem is exacerbated by the culture of silence around the issue coupled with religious and cultural practices that condone violence particularly domestic violence. The magnitude of the problem of domestic violence spurred women’s rights defenders to advocate for a law to address domestic violence. The result of the advocacy was the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act (Chapter 5:16) (hereinafter referred to as the Act), which came into force on 25 October 2007.

The question, which should be uppermost in everyone’s mind, is now that the Act is in place what is next? For this reason the theme for this year’s 16 days of activism against gender based violence could not have been more relevant for Zimbabwe. The Act has to be implemented effectively and this can only be done by challenging all the obstacles that may hinder effectiveness. The objective of this paper is to analyse these obstacles and suggest some ways of overcoming the obstacles. The writer has been involved in information dissemination and development of implementation plans for the Act hence the analysis will draw a lot on this experience. The writer has identified three main challenges or obstacles to the effective implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. These are

i) Resources both human and financial
ii) Knowledge of the law and
iii) Negative attitudes towards the law

Resources

Effective implementation of the domestic violence law will require a lot of resources. Awareness programmes have already started and resource materials are required for the programme. In disseminating information on the Act, people need the actual Act for further reference. Others need simplified versions and versions translated into their vernacular languages. Beyond information dissemination, resources are also needed to put in place certain structures that are provided for in the Act. Some of the structures are domestic violence sections at all police stations and safe houses for complainants of domestic violence.

Besides financial and material resources, effective implementation of the law will require manpower. The various government departments who have the mandate to implement the law such as the police, the courts and health officials should have adequate staff for complainants to be assisted expeditiously. Zimbabwe as a nation is currently experiencing the challenge of skilled manpower with most people living the country in search of greener pastures. This means that new people have to be trained to fill in the gap.

Overcoming the obstacles of resources seems like an insurmountable task considering the economic crisis that the nation is going through. However, the obstacle can be overcome by prioritizing and applying a multisectoral approach to resource mobilization. Given the high incidence of domestic violence in Zimbabwe, it is argued that the issue deserves priority in the national budget. The 2008 national budgets are currently being prepared and this is an opportunity to factor in funding for the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. The state needs to show its commitment to the elimination of domestic violence by providing funds for the Act’s implementation. However, one needs to appreciate that the state alone does not have sufficient funds hence the need for all stakeholders to combine resources to fight the scourge of domestic violence. This means that the government, civil society and the private sector all have to mobilize resources and make a meaningful contribution in funding the implementation programme. The resources mobilized can be used for information, education and communication materials development setting up of safe houses and training and capacity development of personnel.

Knowledge of the law

Whilst sharing the provisions of the Act with various stakeholders, the writer has been amazed by the things which are said to be in the Act which are not there. Unfortunately this lack of knowledge is not only found in the receivers of information but even among resource persons and facilitators disseminating the information. The distortion of information could have arisen from the fact that when the law was still in Bill form, all women’s rights activists took it upon themselves to raise awareness on the law among the public. While this was good when one considers the area covered and the speed with which the information travelled, the problem was that some of the information disseminators had not seen the Bill. They just passed on information, which they had heard from those who had the Bill. Further to that, others who are without a legal background did not interpret the provisions of the law correctly. The Bill also underwent some amendments in Parliament. Some people continued to disseminate the information in the original Bill without noting the changes that had been effected in Parliament.

Since people cannot utilize a law, which they do not know, it is imperative that the advocates for this law and the implementers join hands in conducting an intensive national awareness programmes. In carrying out this awareness programme, those who have no legal expertise must ensure that they involve legal experts so that beneficiaries receive correct information. The implementers themselves i.e. court officials and police officers ought to be trained so that they know what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it.

Negative attitudes towards the law

The introduction of this law has sent shock waves among cultural and religious circles where it is viewed as usurping of husbands’ marital power by women. Some opponents even went further to attack the women who were advocating for the law labeling them as divorcees and singles seeking to destroy other people’s marriages. The gatekeepers argue that the family is sacred and the law should not interfere in family matters. They contend that if there are any disputes between husbands and wives, they should be solved through the cultural or religious structures because the private should be separated from the public.

Attitudes are the greatest obstacles to the implementation of this Act because usually they cannot be changed overnight. One has to keep pushing and lobbying until change occurs. Some of the resistance stems from ignorance of the law and therefore the religious and cultural leaders need to be targeted with information in order for them to understand that the law protects both men and women. However, involvement of the cultural and religious leaders has to go beyond information dissemination to a level where the leaders appreciate the benefits of the law so that they can also influence acceptance among their followers.

Conclusion

Despite these obstacles this year’s commemoration of 16 days of activism against gender based violence is a time of celebration for Zimbabwe. It has been a long road to have a domestic violence law in place. The struggle went on for more than ten years but now the Act is operational. We celebrate this achievement and we celebrate the lives of those women who have put their reputation at stake to ensure that the law becomes a reality.

* Irene Sithole is the Gender Based Violence Programme Officer for Women's
Action Group, an NGO which advocates for women's rights in Zimbabwe.
She can be contacted by email at [email][email protected] or
[email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

In the run up to World Cup 2010, organisations around the world are seriously concerned about the problem of human trafficking into the Southern African region, says Tonya Graham.

In the run up to World Cup 2010, organisations around the world are seriously concerned about the problem of human trafficking into the Southern African region. At a mid-November conference held by the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) in Bangkok, Thailand, the need to adequately prepare for the upcoming world event taking place in South Africa was one of the topics on the agenda

In Southern Africa as well, gender and women’s rights activists are increasing recognising human trafficking as a human rights and gender violence issue. Though still not well understood, trafficking in women is an emerging problem, which will increase substantially as the South Africa, and the entire region, moves towards the 2010 mass influx of tourists.

Human trafficking is a pervasive global problem, and strong laws are vital to preventing and prosecuting it, as well as caring for survivors. Take the case of Mary Jiang* who left her home in Vietnam to go and work in Taiwan, anticipating a good job with a salary that would give her the chance to improve her life and that of her family.

However, when she arrived she found the promises were false, and she suffered inhuman treatment by her employers who forced her to work gruelling 16-hour days. When one of the 20 machines she worked on at once caught Jiang’s hand, she waited 45 minutes before her hand was freed, suffering sever injuries.

After two days in hospital her employers told her to sign some forms, they were taking her to a better hospital. Once signed, they took her back to a company building and locked her in a small, dirty room. Jiang is just one of the thousands of women across the worlds that are trafficked into forced labour, domestic servitude and sex slavery every year.

The United Nations (UN) Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines human trafficking as, “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

This Protocol entered into force in 2003, and resulted in new or bolstered anti-trafficking laws in many countries, laws intended to support trafficked people like Jiang and arrest and prosecute traffickers. Jiang managed to escape her captors, and fortunately, Taiwanese law was on her side. She was able to access proper treatment for her injury, and is now back in Vietnam studying law, with partial support from the Taiwanese legal centre that first assisted her.

However, Jiang’s case is a rare success story. Taiwanese law, the legal facilities available there for migrant workers and trafficked people, as well as Mary’s ability to gather hard evidence such as hospital bills and photographs of both her injury and company buildings, enabled her to successfully seek justice.

Unfortunately, for the majority of trafficked people, despite new laws and protocols, access to justice is still far out of reach. This is especially the case in Africa, where many countries have been slow to react to the problem, and where legislation exists at all, it is inadequate or poorly implemented. Mozambique, for example, is a major source country for trafficking to South Africa, but has yet to adopt a proposed anti-trafficking bill.

A new report by the GAATW, Collateral Damages, examines anti-trafficking measures and their impact on the human rights of trafficked people from 8 countries across the globe. Nigeria, a major source country for women trafficked to Europe, is the African country included in the report.

The Nigerian government passed an anti-trafficking Act shortly after the UN Trafficking Protocol came into force. Victoria Nwogu, author of the Nigeria chapter, says that while the Act is definitely a step in the right direction, it has many loopholes and shortfalls, the result of acting too quick.

The Act, she says, essentially reproduces the UN Trafficking Protocol, without effectively adapting it to the local context. Some of the points of the Protocol are inappropriate for Nigeria and so the Act, in some places, misses its mark.

However, the Act and other anti-trafficking measures are important steps taken toward ending human trafficking, and their successes and positive activities are important to consider. In addition to the Act, Nigeria established a specialised anti-trafficking agency (NAPTIP), introduced severe penalties for offences related to human trafficking, successfully prosecuted offenders, and launched a massive awareness campaign.

The Nigerian Police Force has specialised Anti-Trafficking Units, and works together with NAPTIP and immigration services in detecting, investigating and prosecuting traffickers. According to Nwogu’s report, from, “2003 to date, NAPTIP has successfully prosecuted nine cases resulting in 11 convictions, while 35 more cases are ongoing.”

Despite all this, trafficking in the country is not really decreasing, something that Nwogu attributes to the fact that Nigeria is not properly addressing the issues that cause people to migrate, issues that become the root causes of human trafficking, and that impact women specifically, such as poverty, human rights violations, social exclusion, etc.

“If these factors are ignored, people will continue to explore unsafe migration channels and ultimately find their way into the arms of traffickers,” she says.

One of the major problems with current anti-trafficking laws in Nigeria and elsewhere is that they focus more on arresting traffickers than they do on protecting or supporting trafficked women, children and men. Assistance to trafficked people is often conditional on their agreeing to cooperate with law enforcement.

Non-cooperation can lead to unnecessary detention or deportation. In many ways, current measures deal with trafficking from a national security perspective. The Collateral Damages report gives 10 recommendations that aim change that to a human security perspective, putting the rights and needs of trafficked people at the forefront.

Many of the recommendations simply sound like common sense: base policies on evidence collected from trafficked people; inform people who have been trafficked from other countries about how they can get assistance in their home country upon return; monitor the impact of anti-trafficking measures and make changes accordingly.

Many nations in Africa, because of their slow response to human trafficking, have actually been given a unique opportunity to learn from the mistakes of countries, which may have responded too quickly to the UN Trafficking Protocol. They have the opportunity to create evidence-based legislation that is country-specific, to institute measures that take the rights of trafficked people and other migrants into account, and to respond in ways that also address the root causes of migration.

With it porous borders, high rates of poverty, and pervasive gender inequalities, Southern Africa is ripe ground for human trafficking. The region has the opportunity to recognise and act pro-actively, with the lessons learned elsewhere, to deal with the problem before it escalates even further.

* Not her real name.

* Tonya Graham is a projects coordinator working with CMFD (Community Media for Development) Productions, currently working on media to raise awareness about human trafficking.

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

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

Melanie Judge writes about the apparent passivity of government leaders in the face of lesbian attacks and murders in South Africa.

It is hard not to feel pessimistic when it comes to 16 Days of Activism. The killers of Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Masooa, two lesbian activists murdered in Soweto in July, have still to be brought to book. The murder of Thokozane Qwabe in Ladysmith remains unresolved. And, as I write this, another two lesbian women have been targeted for attack at a township gay bar, followed, and then shot: one of them fatally.

These recent violent attacks and murders have left many of us deeply saddened and enraged. Many more are non-plussed. Yet, these attacks on lesbian women are nothing new. For each of these women, there are hundreds more who are raped, to prove a point by men and communities who do not approve of their sexuality.

To compound matters, government leaders remain silent about such incidents of extreme prejudice. Whilst South Africa boasts a myriad of laws that protect against discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, which leaders often trot out with great aplomb during the 16 days of Activism, such laws are meaningless in the face of ongoing gender-based killings. As women, and as lesbians, our bodies and our sexualities are quite literally under attack.

In the midst of trying to make sense of the brutality meted out to women every day, through rape, murder and sexual assault, the question arises: How do we deal with hate? Firstly, we need to acknowledge that as South Africans, we are steeped in hate – arguably the most pernicious survivor of the apartheid era.

Such hatred forms part of why we rape and kill each other. Women are frequently the target of displaced anger and disempowerment as expressed through violence. Lesbian women in particular seem to be increasingly singled out for attack in actively homophobic communities. The level of violence against women in South Africa is perhaps the truest barometer of our progress, or lack thereof, to healing and reconciliation, as a society.

Our relatively new social commitment to our Constitution, which enshrines the core, values of equality, dignity and freedom, demands of us to address the matter of hatred head on. Why should we have to tolerate the killing and the raping, and be silenced by the promise/veneer of the Constitution?

What is done in our homes, on our streets and in the heart our communities is the very antithesis of these values. There is neither celebration nor justice in that.

People hate along a continuum. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never harm me” is all but a nursery-rhyme lie. It is the attitudes, beliefs and words that provide the impetus for the sticks and stones. For hatred that is acted out in turn establishes and reestablishes particular forms of social power, through the means of abuse and violence.

We know the discourse only too well: It’s the lesbian that “needs” raping to “sort her out”, the wife that “needs a klap” to “keep her in line”, and the gay man that gets bashed for letting the team down. No coincidence that these manifestations of prejudice are directed at groups which are not exactly at the top of the social hierarchy. The point is that there are social systems that shape the nature and form of South Africa’s violence and gendered power is central to this.

Laws that promote equality and protect against discrimination, do not even shelter the most powerful. Why, after over a decade of democracy, do we not have one politician in the ruling party who is publicly out as gay or lesbian? One can only surmise that the fear of marginalisation, if not outright victimization, is just too great.

And despite the laws, there is little justice for women who suffer the consequences of systemic oppression. The handling of various cases of sexual harassment against senior male government leaders, despite policy and legislation designed to protect women from gender abuse, are a case in point.

And the afore-mentioned lesbian murders remain nameless statistics in the bowels of an unresponsive criminal justice system. The insidious thing about systemic oppression is that it pretends that it’s not there. It’s the elephant in the room. And we turn a blind eye as the trampling continues.

What we need are less policymakers pontificating and more unequivocal voices that say “this is not acceptable.” We need less rhetoric and more action in communities, not in the hallowed walls of conferences and imbizos. When does hate become a crime? Unfortunately only when our legislature and political leaders decide it should. Until then, the prejudice that underpins gender-based violence is kept invisible, and the transformation required to build a non-discriminatory and rights-based culture is thwarted.

Instead of the preoccupation with the spurious notion of “moral regeneration,” our religious and traditional leaders should take a proactive position against all forms of hate-fuelled violence. This would require bold positions on bigotry and discriminatory rhetoric, in contradiction to the hate speech that is often shaped through religious and cultural narratives.

“Homosexuality is unAfrican”, taken to its logical conclusion, may be used to “justify’” victimisation. “Homosexuality is a sin,” may also be evoked to the same end. There’s nothing cultural or religious about beating your wife or about driving your lesbian child out of home. That’s called oppressive power, and it happens through patriarchy – often under the guise of “culture.”

During this year’s 16 days of activism I challenge our leaders say and do something about the rapes and murders of lesbian women, the many women who are killed by their male partners, everyday, and those women who continue to be harassed, even by male political leadership. Or are we headed for another 336 days of silent passivity?

* Melanie Judge works with OUT LGBT Well-being.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Impetus behind the agenda

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

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

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

The realities on the ground

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

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

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

What informs my interest in the debate?

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

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

Origins of the prohibition

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

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

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

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

What is implicit in the anti-abortion debate?

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

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

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

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

Medical dimensions of the debate

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

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

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

Opportunities for decriminalization

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

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

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

Is there strong policy commitment to safe abortion?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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