War and violence, destitution, disease, poverty and discrimination – it is often African women who carry the burden of Africa’s economic, social and political crisis. In July 2003 a piece of paper with a preamble and 29 articles was passed by the African Union that was hailed as major progress in the struggle for the rights of women on the continent. But what exactly is the reality facing African women? And how does the paperwork begin to address the realities? PAMBAZUKA NEWS looks at ten areas effecting women’s rights and what the protocol says about them.
1. Women and War
A submission by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security for the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, notes that despite the work women do at the grassroots level to organize for peace, the majority of their voices go unheard during formal processes. These include: peace negotiations, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), constitution-creation, elections, reconstruction, rehabilitation, truth and reconciliation, and establishing a judicial system.
Cultures of violence and discrimination against women and girls that exist prior to conflict are exacerbated during conflict, the UN Secretary General's Report on Women, Peace and Security noted in 2003. Women and children are disproportionately targeted in contemporary armed conflicts and constitute the majority of all victims.
Women and children also constitute the majority of the world's refugees and internally displaced persons. During conflict, women and girls are vulnerable to all forms of violence, in particular sexual violence and exploitation, including torture, rape, mass rape, forced pregnancy, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution and trafficking, the report stated.
What the protocol says:
* Women refugees must be accorded the full protection and benefits guaranteed under international refugee law.
* States parties are required to "reduce military expenditure significantly in favour of spending on social development in general and the promotion of women in particular."
* Every woman is guaranteed the right to peace.
* Participation of women in processes for conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation must be ensured.
Source and more information:
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/ngo/ngopub/NoWomenNoPeace.pdf
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/UN1325/sgreport.pdf
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
2. Violence against women
According to the Women in the World Atlas 2003, one third of women and girls have been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in their lifetimes by a member of their family. And according to the World Health Organisation, between 12% and 25% of women around the world have experienced sexual violence at some time in their lives. The WHO has even estimated that violence is the leading cause of death for women between the ages of 15 and 44.
The situation is no different in many parts of Africa. In a survey by the Kenyan Women Rights Awareness Program, 70% of the men and women interviewed said they knew neighbours who beat their wives. In South Africa, it has been estimated that a woman is raped every 83 seconds, while in Zimbabwe, domestic violence accounts for more that 60 % of murder cases that go through the Harare High Court.
What the protocol says:
* It calls for education to end harmful practices and stereotypes that negatively impact on women.
* States will have to introduce measures to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women.
* Budgetary and other resources must be made available to prevent violence against women.
Source and more information:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
3. Economic indicators
Globalisation has had some benefits for African women with higher education and access to resources, but for poor African women it has often meant a sharpening of insecurities. On the ground control and ownership of land is often in the control of men, despite the major contribution that women make to agriculture and food security. In Tanzania, for example, women constitute 80 per cent of agricultural labour resource and produce 60 percent of food requirements.
Apart from land, women are also hamstrung in their economic activity through a lack of access to resources such as credit and education. When it comes to management and decision-making, women are also under-represented. Women receive no monetary compensation for participation in domestic chores like child care, housework and collection of wood and water.
What the protocol says:
* Women will be guaranteed the freedom to choose their occupation.
* States will have to adopt measures to promote equality of access to employment; promote the right to equal remuneration for jobs of equal value for women and men; ensure transparency in recruitment, promotion and dismissal of women and punish sexual harassment in the workplace.
Source and more information: http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
4. Human rights
Human rights of women and girls are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Many women face barriers to enjoyment of their human rights because of race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability or socio-economic class.
Some countries still have laws that perpetuate discrimination with regards personal status, marital status, and violence against women. These include Algeria, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Lesotho, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco.
Customary laws and practices facilitate harmful practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early childhood marriages, forced marriages, widowhood, inheritance, slavery and trafficking in women, child custody and maintenance, and burial laws. In many African countries, women are still regarded as second class citizens, minors and /or property of their husbands.
What the protocol says:
* It aims to highlight the human rights of women in Africa and promote the principles of equality, peace, freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy.
* It covers issues including employment, education, voting rights, nationality laws, rights in marriage and divorce, health care, reproductive rights, and equality before the law.
* States parties will have to adopt legislative, institutional and other measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.
* Protection must be provided to elderly women.
* Any woman whose rights have been violated will be entitled to remedy to be determined by competent judicial, administrative, legislative or any other competent authority provided for by law.
Source and more information: http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
5. Sexual and reproductive rights
More than 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision or other forms of genital mutilation. Doctors in Cote d'Ivoire estimate that 25 percent of infertility cases in Ivorian women is caused by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), while FGM is thought to affect over 40 % of women in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, early marriage and having children before being ready for parenthood is responsible for the deaths of one million infants and an estimated 70,000 adolescent mothers each year in developing countries, according to the State of the World's Mothers report. In many cases young women are forced into marriage.
In Mali, where only six percent of women use birth control one in 10 mothers dies in childbirth, and one in eight infants dies before reaching the first birthday. Fewer than five percent of women use modern contraception in Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Sierra Leone. While many countries in Africa have restrictive abortion laws, four million unsafe abortions occur each year in Africa and more than 40% of the world's deaths due to unsafe abortions occur on the continent.
What the protocol says:
* States will be required to prohibit and condemn female genital mutilation.
* Women and men must have equal rights in relation to marriage.
* The Protocol obligates states parties to guarantee to women adequate and paid pre- and post-natal maternity leave.
* The reproductive rights of women must be protected through access to abortion in certain circumstances.
Source and more information: http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2004/index.asp
http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1879.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3139120.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
6. Health
Low cost improvements in health care would save thousands of the women and girls who die each year due to pregnancy and child birth complications, and a range of other preventable diseases. But improvements in medical knowledge is not the only criteria for improving women's health as often poor health is caused by the infringement of rights through social, cultural or political factors.
Death of infants under five and maternal mortality rates remain very high in African countries. Only 15 countries have below 70 deaths per 1000 live birth (1996) while their under-five Mortality Rate range between 46 and 110. Higher infant mortality rates and deaths of children under five often arise from poverty, poor nutrition and health conditions, having the first baby at an early age, and poor health of the pregnant woman.
The majority of Africans can expect to live no longer than 48 by 2005. Life expectancy of Africans has dropped by 15 years within the past two decades due to AIDS, war and poverty. In some countries life expectancy is already below 40, with women and children suffering the most as a result of the decline. The average of 48 compares with the average of 74.9 years for men and 81.2 years for women in European countries.
What the protocol says:
* States parties are required to respect, protect and promote the right to health of women, including sexual and reproductive.
* It says women have the right to be informed on one's health status and on the health status of one's partner; and the right to have family planning education.
Source and more information:
http://www.awdf.org/runnerapp/Publications/Factsheets/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1814609.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
7. HIV/AIDS
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. Infection rates in young African women are far higher than in young men. If these rates of infection continue, women will soon become the majority of the global total of people infected.
According to Save the Children, women accounted for 40% of all new HIV infection in 2002, and for nearly 40% of all AIDS related deaths that same year, while throughout sub-Saharan Africa, women account for nearly 60% of all HIV-positive persons. Poor women are becoming even less economically secure as a result of AIDS, often deprived of rights to housing, property or inheritance or even adequate health services. In rural areas, AIDS has caused the collapse of coping systems that for centuries have helped women to feed their families during times of drought and famine.
What the protocol says:
* It will guarantee the right to protection against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
Source and more information
http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/womensday/default.asp
http://www.savethechildren.org/health/hiv_aids/statistics.asp
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
8. Education
International development efforts are leaving hundreds of millions of girls and women uneducated and unable to contribute to positive change for themselves, their children, or their communities, a Unicef report says. The report said that without accelerated action to get more girls into school, global goals to reduce poverty and improve the human condition would not be reached.
Unicef noted that illiteracy rates are still far higher among women than men, and at least 9 million more girls than boys are left out of school every year in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of girls left out of school each year has risen from 20 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2002.
What the protocol says:
* States will be required to guarantee equal opportunity and access to women in the sphere of education and training.
Source and more information:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/sowc04_16165.html
http://www.unfpa.org/africa/demographic.htm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
9. Human trafficking
Four million women and girls are trafficked annually, says the United Nations, while according to Unicef an estimated one million children, mostly girls, enter the sex trade each year.
A Unicef report, Trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, in Africa and based on information from 53 African countries, provides an analysis of the patterns, root causes, and existing national and regional policy responses. It says women and children are either sexually exploited, used as labour or their organs are harvested. A strong determinant in the vulnerability of women are the patterns of oppression, discrimination, social and cultural prejudices, and the prevalence of gender violence.
What the protocol says:
* Trafficking in women will be condemned and perpetrators prosecuted.
Source and more information:
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-genderviolence.html; http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40730
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
10. Participation in government
Worldwide, the number of women represented in national parliaments comes in at just over 15 percent and figures indicate that in recent years sub-Saharan Africa has caught up with and equalled this average.
Although Africa registers as one of the poorest regions in the world, women's representation in parliament is now higher than in many wealthier countries, noted Unifem in its Progress of the World's Women 2002 report.
Between 2000 and 2002, elections were held in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with increases in women parliamentarians in 14 of them.
The protocol:
* There is an obligation on states to promote the participation of women in governance.
Source and more information:
http://www.learningpartnership.org/facts/leadership.phtml
http://www.afrol.com/articles/12204
http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/document.do?id=51444F4B0A2DDB0780256EA90...
