Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category
The first female Somali district chief in Northeastern Kenya has fled her district in fear. Male elders outraged by the idea of a woman presuming to political leadership threw stones at her and made life unbearable. It’s dangerous where she is now too.
Before she sought refuge two months ago at the compound of her provincial district commissioner, Amina Muhumed Sirat tried to carry out her duties as the first district chief of Meri, in the northeastern part of Kenya.
She would wake up before 6 a.m. to tend to household chores. Then the 29-year-old Somali would don her uniform and get to the office by 8 a.m., where she would help members of her district resolve disputes involving family, business and land matters. Some days she would officiate at a public function.
But two months ago–10 months after her appointment in July 2009–she gave up and fled the persistent hostilities of the male elders in her community; men who had known her all her life. They would throw stones at her when she tried to walk along the street or carry out an official function.
The district commissioner’s compound–300 kilometers away–became the temporary refuge for herself, her husband and their young son. She does not even dare visit the division she is supposed to administer.
Sirat’s province in Northeastern Kenya, one of the country’s seven administrative regions, is dominated by ethnic Somalis who are Muslim.
In this community, Sirat says, most men think women’s place is in the kitchen, not political office.
The Habasweini division where she has sought refuge is also a threatening place for her.
At Habasweini–where Sirat says she does nothing but try to keep safe–her life has been threatened twice. Once her house was invaded and everything inside destroyed.
District Commissioner Gabriel Ochuda, 46, says it is still a taboo among the Somalis for a woman to lead. But he says he is doing what he can to change that.
He says he has been engaging the hostile elders of Sirat’s community and trying to persuade them to accept her as their chief. He said she is very qualified to do the job.
Abdi Noor Abdi, an elder in Sirat’s Meri district, says women in leadership positions goes against Islamic teachings.
“For a man it’s different because there is no time that we are going to take maternal leave. Whereas for women they have to and they have a lot of responsibilities at home,” he said.
Sirat graduated with a diploma in community development from the University of Nairobi in 2007.
For some the degree represents a ticket to well-paying jobs in government or the private sector.
But Sirat says she wanted to give back to her community of about 30,000 people. She opted to join the provincial administration. Having grown up there, she thought she understood the problems of the people and she wanted to make a difference.
She landed the chief’s job after a competitive interview conducted by provincial administrators.
She says her parents, who encourage her to succeed, have also been estranged from their friends.
“Despite being happy for Sirat’s achievement, I’m scared for her life. I want her to live a normal life but she can’t do that as long as she remains a chief,” her father said.
He says that according to Somali culture, a woman is not supposed to hold any public office, but that some aspects of his culture are outdated.
Even though she is not on any active duty, Sirat dresses in her official khaki uniform– a long skirt and black headscarf with a beret on top.
“I’m decently dressed, I don’t wear tight skirts and I do cover my hair,” Sirat said. “And I still do my wifely duties, getting home early to take care of my son and my husband.”
Part of a longer article at http://www.womensenews.org/story/traditions/100723/kenyan-named-chief-now-has-fled-her-home where you can also add a comment
Thirteen of every 100 married Kenyan women have co-wives. This means they are married to men who have at least one or more other wives, according to the latest official statistics on population trends.
Although the figure represents a drop from the 16 of every 100 married women who had co-wives in 2003, the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), 2008/2009 says Kenyan men should restrain themselves from taking more than one wife.
Polygamy means multiple spouses; polygyny means multiple wives; and polyandry means multiple husbands. Experts believe that in Kenya polygyny is one of the social practices fuelling the spread of HIV/Aids.
It also perpetuates large families, frustrating campaigns to control population growth estimated at 2.3 per cent per year. Results of last year’s national population census — now scheduled to be released next month— are expected to show that Kenya has a population of 40 million people, a number so high that it will dominate today’s World Population Day official celebrations being held in Mombasa.
“We get worried by polygamous marriages because they increase the
likelihood that co-wives will compete among themselves at having more children and end up contributing to the average number of births per women,” said Samuel Ogola, a programme officer at the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development.
The situation, he said, was worse among less educated women, an observation confirmed in the KDHS report. It shows that educated women were less likely to practice polygamy, a practice that was common in past centuries when having more women and children was considered to be a status symbol and a source of pride for men.
Having more daughters in the past was seen as a source of wealth from the dowry paid to their families when they were married.
http://thecitizen.co.tz/news/2-international-news/2932-polygamy-ups-hiv-infection-risk-in-kenya.html
Women have been urged to be more assertive and insist that their partners respect their decisions about sex.
Mr Patrick Amoateng-Mensah, Executive Director of the Centre for Development of People (CEDEP), a non-governmental organization, who made call, said that could help check their vulnerability to the HIV-AIDS infection.
He was speaking in Kumasi at the launch of the Ashanti Region “Fair play for Africa campaign”, an alliance of more than 200 civil society organizations’, using sports as a platform to draw attention to health issues affecting the people in Africa.
“Reduction of HIV/AIDS stigma among women”, was the theme.
Politicians, educationists, public officers, students, health professionals, religious leaders and other stakeholders were present to support the campaign.
Mr Amoateng-Mensah urged the people to overcome stigmatization attached to the disease and go for voluntary counseling and testing.
It is estimated that only about 10 per cent of Ghanaians know their HIV/AIDS status.
Mr Mensah also spoke of the need for those living with the disease to be supported to lead normal lives.
Dr Yeboah Awudzi, Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Health Services, said 73 per cent of people aged between 15 and 17 years, who were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS disease in 2008 in the Metropolis, were girls.
Tens of thousands of Kenyan women and girls suffer from obstetric fistula, a childbirth injury causing leakage of urine and feces, a direct result of inadequate health services and failed government policies, Human Rights Watch said in a report released earlier this month.
The 82-page report, “‘I Am Not Dead, But I Am Not Living’: Barriers to Fistula Prevention and Treatment in Kenya,” describes the devastating condition facing women with fistula in Kenya and the wide gap between government’s policies to address reproductive health and the reality of women’s daily lives. It documents health system failures in five areas: education and information on reproductive and maternal health; school-based sex education; access to emergency obstetric care, including referral and transport systems; affordable maternity care and fistula repair; and health system accountability. It also documents stigma and violence many fistula sufferers face.
“Many women and girls with fistula endure lives of shame, misery, violence, and poverty,” said Agnes Odhiambo, Africa women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Preventing fistula and restoring women’s health and dignity requires more than good policies on paper. Kenya needs to keep its promise of decent health care for all.”
The risk of obstetric fistula often begins when young girls get pregnant or marry early, before their bodies are safely able to sustain a pregnancy. This can result in obstructed labor, and if emergency care – often a Caesarean section – is not accessible, the long labor results in destruction of vaginal tissue and causes a hole – a fistula – and incontinence. One of the factors leading to early pregnancy and childbearing is the lack of accurate information about sexuality. Human Rights Watch interviewed many girls with virtually no knowledge about reproductive processes or health.
Kwamboka W., who got pregnant at 13 while in primary school, told Human Rights Watch: “I didn’t know anything about family planning or condoms. I just went once and got pregnant. I still have no idea about contraceptives.”
Others told Human Rights Watch they had unprotected sex but thought they would not get pregnant because it was their first time or because they had irregular menstrual periods.
The report is based on field research conducted by Human Rights Watch in November and December 2009 in hospitals in Kisumu, Nairobi, Kisii, and Machakos, as well as in Dadaab in March 2010. Researchers interviewed 55 women and girls ranging in age from 14 to 73, 53 of whom had fistula. Twelve of those with fistula were between the ages of 14 and 18. Human Rights Watch also interviewed obstetric fistula surgeons, nurses working in hospital fistula wards, hospital administrators, representatives of nongovernmental organizations working on health and women’s rights, government officials, representatives of professional associations for doctors and nurses, international donors, United Nations representatives, and primary and secondary school teachers.
Kwamboka W. described her life after she developed a fistula: “I thought I should kill myself. You can’t walk with people. They laugh at you. You can’t travel; you are constantly in pain. It is so uncomfortable when you sleep. You go near people and they say urine smells, and they are looking directly at you and talking in low tones. It hurt so much I thought I should die. You can’t work because you are in pain; you are always wet and washing clothes. Your work is just washing pieces of rugs.”
Human Rights Watch found that even though the government has introduced sex education in schools, teachers often don’t take the time to teach it because it is not part of the syllabus.
The report also said that health care user fees are a significant barrier to maternity care and fistula surgery. Many of the women who suffer from fistula are poor. Women told Human Rights Watch how difficult it was to raise money for surgery. The Kenya government made a great stride when it began offering free maternity care in dispensaries and health centers, Human Rights Watch said. But this does not help the women who develop complications requiring care in hospitals, where fees are still charged. These fees deter poor women from seeking skilled maternity care.
Government hospitals are supposed to offer fee waivers for indigent patients, but the report identified critical shortcomings in the waiver process. These include lack of awareness of the policy among patients and some health providers; the reluctance of some facilities to publicize the waivers and deliberate withholding of information requested by patients; vague implementation guidelines, including the criteria for determining a patient’s financial needs; and lack of oversight and monitoring to ensure that hospitals grant waivers to qualifying patients. None of the women and girls interviewed by Human Rights Watch had received a waiver.
“Poor, rural, and illiterate women and girls are often the ones who develop obstetric fistula or die during pregnancy and childbirth,” Odhiambo said. “Important information and services are not reaching them, and this shows that government policies that promise health care equality are not being carried out.”
Strengthening health system accountability – giving people accessible and effective ways to provide feedback and lodge complaints, and ensuring that the feedback leads to improvements – can greatly enhance the health system, Human Rights Watch said. The current system of suggestion boxes is ineffective, especially for illiterate women, the report found. Several women and girls interviewed by Human Rights Watch had experienced abuse in health facilities, yet did not lodge complaints because they did not know how or feared retaliation.
“Camps” funded by international donors a few weeks a year in a number of towns offer surgical repairs to a small percentage of fistula sufferers, but even those who have successful surgery may still face stigma in their families and communities.
After years, sometimes decades, of isolation, many women and girls need help reintegrating into their communities. They need social and psychological support to regain self-esteem and confidence, to encourage participation in social and religious life, to regain fertility and an opportunity for a normal sexual life, and to ensure future safe childbirth. These women also need help to become financially self-sufficient.
The Kenyan government should develop and implement a national strategy to prevent fistula and provide needed services to those who have the injury, Human Rights Watch said. The effort should include a public awareness campaign about the causes of fistula, the need for childbirth to take place in properly equipped facilities, and the availability of treatment. The government should make comprehensive sex education part of the school syllabus to ensure that teachers allocate time to teach it.
The government also urgently needs to improve access to fistula surgery by subsidizing routine repairs in hospitals and providing free surgery for indigent patients, Human Rights Watch said. It should expand the exemptions from user fees to include all maternal health care, not just childbirth in dispensaries and health centers, and the government should urgently improve the quality of and access to emergency obstetric care.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/15/kenya-preventable-childbirth-injury-ruins-lives
Download the report from “I Am Not Dead, But I Am Not Living” – Barriers to Fistula Prevention and Treatment in Kenya from http://www.hrw.org/node/91514
Unsafe abortions account for more than one in 10 women who die in pregnancy in Ghana, according to new research by the US-based Guttmacher Institute, with ignorance of the law and inadequate facilities partly to blame, say health authorities. See http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/IB-Abortion-in-Ghana.pdf
Abortion was declared legal in 1985 for women who have been raped, in cases of incest, or where the pregnancy will cause the mother physical or mental harm, but decades on, only 4 percent of women are aware of the law, according to 2009 government health statistics (based on 2007 data).
Over half of healthcare providers at a teaching hospital in Kumasi, south-central Ghana, were unaware that forms of abortion are legal in Ghana, and in localized assessments “many groups working in women’s reproductive health did not know either,” said senior Guttmacher Institute researcher Gilda Sedgh.
Some 15 percent of women and girls in Ghana have had an abortion, with rates highest for those living in urban areas. Most say they do so because they cannot afford to raise a child, according to studies.
While the majority sought a doctor, 43 percent turned to a pharmacist, friend, or traditional midwives to induce an abortion, with the result that 13 percent experienced a health problem following the procedure, and of them 41 percent received no medical care.
One in 45 women or girls in Ghana risks dying from pregnancy-related causes in their reproductive lifetime, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
While the government has to some degree been clear about its stance on abortion, “making people aware of the law is a slow process,” Sedgh told IRIN. “The stigma takes a long time to wane.”
But Gloria Quansah Asare, family health director in the Ghana Health Service, told IRIN the government must be cautious in promoting abortion services because there are not enough of them: “We don’t go to the public and announce ‘come for services’. If you do that and the people come and you can’t get the services, you will be in trouble.”
The health service does not have enough doctors or clinics that can offer comprehensive abortion care, says Asare. By this she means care that includes post-abortion training in family planning, provision of contraception and counselling, on top of the procedure. “But we have doctors who should be able to further train to perform abortions,” she told IRIN.
Some NGOs like Marie Stopes International, which is registered to provide abortions in Ghana, help fill the capacity gap.
Instead of promoting abortion services, the health authorities stress the dangers of unsafe abortion and no family planning. “We want to tell our public about the dangers of unsafe abortion… We say don’t go to someone who is untrained, but go to a recognized one [doctor]… We want people to practice family planning, so we talk about it.”
The health service and Ministry of Health have imposed minimum standards in government hospitals, so that all health workers involved are well-trained, will provide counselling and preserve women’s dignity in the care they provide.
This kind of comprehensive care is not yet available in all hospitals or in many private clinics, said Asare. Many doctors still perform abortions with no discussion of family planning or follow-up care: “The next time they [the patient] gets pregnant, she comes again. It is wrong.” But take-up is increasing, she and the Guttmacher Institute agree.
The government is running a “life choice” campaign to try to encourage more responsible family planning – billboards across towns, and radio spots, transmit the message. “Everybody talks about family planning… Even the Catholic Church, which doesn’t like contraceptives, promotes natural family planning,” Asare said.
More contraceptive advice and materials are needed in clinics and hospitals, says the Guttmacher Institute. Some 35 percent of married women in Ghana have an unmet need for contraceptives, according to the 2008 demographic health survey.
Getting the family planning message across should be easier than pushing the availability of safe abortions, as “nobody likes abortion [in Ghana] – society, health professionals, even patients, but people are dying from unsafe abortion,” Asare told IRIN. “We did a study and found even health workers are unwilling to perform abortions… so we have to roll it out in such a way that people will accept it,” she said.
Many law-enforcers do not agree with the law, and crack down on clinics despite the fact they are providing legal services, Sedgh told IRIN.
Some providers still impose stiff fees because they know the women coming to them are in a bind, says Sedgh. Women in Accra pay anything from $9 to $90 for an abortion in a hospital or private clinic, according to a 2002 study by US doctors.
Asare takes a practical approach. “If a doctor does not want to perform the abortion, he should be able to refer a patient to a place where they can get such a service.”
There are signs that views are changing. In one study in the capital Accra, most adolescent females interviewed said though they disapproved of abortion, they could describe situations – such as being in an unstable relationship, or not having enough money to raise a child – where they considered it acceptable.
And 80 percent of doctors at an Accra teaching hospital favoured establishing safe abortion units within hospitals.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/0be8fa55e914581b251c1869fb4e5d29.htm
Religious leaders opposing the proposed constitution have been accused of hiding under claims of sanctity of life, even as the Catholic church said it would not support the draft law.
Constitutional lawyer Mutakha Kangu said the Church’s objection of the new law on the basis of abortion clauses was assuming that trained health professionals would be used to kill the unborn.
He wondered why religious leaders were not opposed to the clause on right to life that says a person can be deprived of life intentionally to the extent authorised by the constitution.
“Death sentences can be passed through legislation and the Church does not seem to oppose that, yet it’s creating an impression that it is concerned with protecting life,” said Dr Kangu.
He said the struggle for a new constitution which has taken some 20 years now, started when Kenyans felt the need to clip the powers of the presidency.
He said that abortion, kadhi courts and counties were never the reasons behind the push for a better constitution, although they were equally important issues.
Those thinking that kadhi courts would make Kenya a Muslim state should stop assumptions that had no basis, he warned.
“The kadhi courts are in the current constitution. Besides, a Muslim who offends a Christian will still end up in the normal courts,” said Dr Kangu.
Recently retired president Daniel Moi told a rally in Eldoret that the clause on citizenship was not good as it might see foreigners accorded Kenyan citizenship.
The former leader has also criticised the constitution citing land and abortion as some of the clauses that should be looked into before the referendum.
As Zimbabwe embarks on writing a new constitution with the countrywide collection of public submissions starting on Jun. 23, not all women are upbeat about the process.
While some gender activists see this public comment phase as an opportunity for their voices to be heard, ordinary women remain in the dark about the proposed new constitution and what exactly they are supposed to contribute.
Activists warn this could be a lost chance for women to speak about issues that affect them and therefore assert their constitutional rights. It could compromise women’s rights advocacy and the drive to have more women in parliament and other decision-making positions, warns Rejoice Timire of the Disabled Women Support Organisation.
“For women’s issues to come out as they want in the constitution, it needs women at the grassroots to be educated about what is a constitution. If they don’t know what it (the constitution) means then we cannot say our issues will come out as we want them to as Zimbabwean women,” Timire told IPS.
There are already complaints among members of the public that not much has been done to adequately advertise the call for public submissions.
Lydia Thembo agrees saying she has no clue about the constitution-making process that she and other Zimbabweans are expected to provide input for.
“I have not heard anything about it (the constitution outreach exercise),” she told IPS. “There are obviously many things I would like addressed that affects us women, for example, issues to do with inheritance laws. But I have no clue how to do this. I only know about voting during elections – that’s all.”
Local newspapers also reported that the public is unaware of where to make their submissions and that one constitutional outreach team dispatched to collect submissions had been thrown out of their hotel, due to lack of accommodation arrangements.
These concerns are emerging against the backdrop of feminist activists having already complained after the formation of the government of national unity in 2009 that the coalition partners had ignored the call for equal representation in senior government positions. This would have been in line with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, of which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
The protocol demands that women have equal positions to men in both public and private sectors by 2015. Zimbabwe has only four female cabinet ministers of a total 120.
“At the moment women in parliament are too few to make any meaningful change,” Timire said.
Zimbabwe’s next elections are expected after a new constitution has been written and accepted in a referendum. The constitutional outreach process is expected to be completed by September.
But concerns have been raised that this could be another exercise in futility that will serve only as “window dressing.”
“Coming up with a good constitution is one thing, implementing the provisions is quite another thing,” said Slyvia Chirawu, National Coordinator of the Women and Law in Southern Africa (Zimbabwe).
The decades-old economic crisis has left women vulnerable and out of employment, and feminists say this has partly been due to their absence in decision-making positions both in the public and private sector.
“We need other strategies to get women into decision-making positions. Do the political parties themselves have a clear stance on women’s participation in their parties? It determines the number of women who get into parliament,” Chirawu told IPS.
In a gender audit report of political parties that form Zimbabwe’s unity government last year, the Women in Politics Support Unit lamented that despite Zimbabwe being a signatory of the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the coalition government had, by not ensuring gender parity in government, failed the country’s women.
Yet the fight for political equality remains a tough one in this largely patriarchal nation where women remain stereotyped as “homemakers,” says Abigail Shuma, a gender activist in Bulawayo.
“Women are yet to come out of the closet as leaders in their own right not by mere appointment and that has been the nature of our national politics that women only participate and become very visible only as supporters and so-called party bulwarks. That’s how their role in politics has been defined,” Shuma told IPS.
“There is still a long way to go before ordinary women aspire to higher political office in this country.”
However, Chirawu believes new strategies must be adopted for women’s presence to be felt.
“We need to address issues that hinder women’s effective participation in politics starting from the home upwards,” Chirawu told IPS. She said this included addressing, among other issues: the lack of knowledge on laws and policies; gender inequalities; patriarchy; negative stereotypes; and lack of access to resources.
“The legislated quota system will only work if those who get in through this system have real power, so we look at the motive: is it just window dressing or is it meant to give the women real power as decision makers?” she asked.
Girls’ safety hinges on families’ willingness to speak out about sexual violence, researchers in Senegal’s southern Casamance region said at the release of a study that reveals widespread violence against girls aged 10 to 13.
The study, by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the University of Ziguinchor, found that in Kolda, Sédhiou and Ziguinchor, family, social and cultural pressures bred silence and impunity.
Having heard of many cases of early pregnancy and violence in and around schools in 2008 and 2009, UNICEF funded and conducted the study for a more detailed picture of the nature, extent and causes, Christina de Bruin, head of the agency in Ziguinchor, told IRIN.
“It is urgent that the taboo surrounding sexual violence be lifted in society and above all in the family,” the report states.
For Diatta Yadicone Sané, a state education worker in Sédhiou region, family honour is an important factor. “In this culture the family’s honour is first and foremost,” she told IRIN. “The first consideration is saving face among the adults; [people] do not think of the young girl who is the victim of something that carries inconceivable consequences.”
Researchers found that social pressures “disarm” families in the face of rape. “Even if parents want to react, more often than not they opt to settle the matter within the family or ask a traditional local leader to mediate,” the report says.
Moreover, families do not want to talk about these arrangements between the family members and the perpetrator, Mohamed Azzedine Salah, UNICEF deputy regional director, told IRIN. “This makes it difficult to have open discussions in the community about the problem and its impact.
“Silence is one of the principal causes of this violence.”
Some local experts and residents said it was mostly because of a family’s fear of social stigma that rape cases were not pursued in court.
“A girl is destined for marriage,” Sané said. “So the family does not want her to be singled out and marginalised.”
In many cases, she added, the assailant is a family member, which makes it all the more unlikely legal recourse will be sought.
“When a girl is raped or beaten by a family member or someone close to the family, people try to find a compromise within the circle because this society looks down upon someone who would bring a close friend or relation to court,” a resident of Casamance’s department of Bignona, Moussa Sané, said.
It is not only in rape cases that culture has a negative impact on girls, child welfare experts and educators told IRIN, naming several other practices they said constitute violence – forced early marriage, early pregnancy and female genital mutilation/cutting.
“When certain rites are practised as part of religious or traditional beliefs it is not easy to eradicate them from one day to the next,” Oumar Diatta, education specialist in Kolda, told IRIN. He said a reluctance to speak out played a role here as well.
“The fact that these practices are deep-seated in the society and culture [means] there is a reticence to denounce them. This blocks understanding of the reality, of the potential harm. It’s a delicate situation.”
In their report UNICEF and the University of Ziguinchor say health, education and social services institutions must work together to combat all forms of violence against children.
As part of their recommendations they call for reinforcing education – for children and adults – about sexual violence and children’s rights, providing legal assistance to victims and strengthening social services for girls traumatised by violence.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/c4eba196bda721d1f571f0a7a5f904ab.htm
Much to the frustration of gender activists, Swaziland’s Supreme Court has reversed a February 2010 High Court ruling that allowed a married woman to register property in their own name.
After centuries of being classified and treated as minors, the new Swazi Constitution granted women equal status in 2005. Activist Mary-Joyce Doo Aphane wished to register a house in her own name and challenged the country’s 1968 Deeds Registry Act. She was granted a High Court order declaring the section unconstitutional.
Yet a mere three months later, “The Supreme Court suppressed the High Court judgment granting women the immediate right to register property in their own names. From a legal and constitutional point of view, this is a big deal,” Tenille Brown, legal advisor to the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), told IRIN.
Although the Constitution grants men and women equal rights, in practice the old laws on the statute books still define gender relations in a country ruled by sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III.
The second-class status of women had long denied them their inheritance rights, and hobbled their progress as entrepreneurs and traders. Observers blame a lack of political will for the slow progress in replacing laws in conflict with the Constitution.
“The Constitution is clear that any law on the books that is counter to rights guaranteed in the Constitution must fall away, but in the face of government inaction, who is to do this?” an attorney who declined to be named told IRIN.
“We welcome the fact that Parliament has been directed that they have one year to amend the law, so that women married in community of property can hold property individually and with their husbands. However, we must remember that the constitution is now five years old. It is SWAGAA’s position that Parliament has taken too long to ensure that the laws of Swaziland provide protection for women,” SWAGAA said in a statement.
“People need to be aware that the inability of women to equally control the property they own with their husbands leads to situations of dependency and possible cases of abuse. We see many women who are not able to leave abusive husbands because it would mean they have nowhere to live, no money, and no family support.”
Most gender activists are sceptical that the deadline set by the Supreme Court will be met by parliament: “Given the amount of time that has gone by since the Constitution was enacted, we are not very hopeful,” Brown said.
The Attorney General’s office, which drafts legislation for parliamentary consideration, would not comment on its timeframe for revising the property law.
Swazi women are watching and waiting. “Thousands of Swazi women are trapped in abusive situations that are endangering their lives and mental health because no one wants to challenge the old patriarchal authority,” said Thab’sile Ndlovu, a secretary in Manzini, Swaziland’s commercial hub. “What use is the constitution?”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/7cf111f89bba74f88ffefe436372136e.htm
We the concerned citizens of Africa reiterate that Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world’s shared development agenda to reduce major aspects of human poverty.
We recall that in September 2000, world leaders met at the United Nations Millennium Summit and committed that by 2015, extreme poverty and hunger will be cut by half; gender inequality will be addressed, women and youth will have access to employment; environmental degradation will be halted; slums will be upgraded and all people will have access to good drinking water; HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis will be contained; all children of school going age will be in school and the gap between boys and girls will be eliminated; and cut child and maternal mortality. These will be ensured through a new global partnership for development which have come to be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
We acknowledge that these goals are derived from more far-reaching international declarations, protocols and conventions such as the universal declaration of human rights, including the protocol on social and economic rights; education for all, health for all; reproductive rights for all; the Convention on the Rights of People Living with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of Indigenous people among others. These have been translated into equivalent protocols and conventions by African leaders.
We are encouraged by the fact that in the last decade, Africa has made significant progress in combating extreme poverty, improving school enrolment, reducing child mortality, expanding access to clean water and containing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
However, we note with concern that progress remains slow in many of the MDGs in many countries in the continent, in particular the areas of hunger, maternal and child mortality, gender equality especially political representation of women, and employment. Without decisive and sustained action by governments, Africa risks missing out on many of the targets and with the appropriate policies and programmes, supported by appropriate levels of investment, most African countries can achieve or, even surpass the MDGs.
We further note that with the recent financial, food and energy crisis, the need for African governments to effectively mobilise domestic resources and prioritise MDGs in the allocation of such resources, as well as the rich countries to fulfilling their side of the bargain to provide additional resources, make trade just and contain climate change, is even more urgent.
To achieve the MDGs we call on Governments to:
• Re-affirm their commitments to the achievement of the MDGs by 2015
• Work with their citizens, parliaments and local governments to develop and implement break-through action plans.
• Address inequality, discrimination and marginalization of specific social groups including people with disabilities, women, youth as integral part of the breakthrough plans.
• Address resource leakages and corruption with urgency
• Act urgently to implement the African protocol on women’s rights and similar undertakings in relation to youth, children and people living with disabilities
• Put employment and decent work for women and young people at the centre of economic policies
• Uphold all continental agreements and protocols to budget adequately for the achievement of the MDGs including such targets as 15% to health, 10% to Agriculture, 10% to education
• Put more efforts into mobilising and retaining domestic resources
through fair and efficient taxation, fair sharing of natural resource rents and the prevention of illicit capital flight
• “ENSURE THAT NO WOMAN SHOULD DIE GIVING LIFE”
We commit as citizen groups to engage our governments at various levels in order to hold them to account for these commitments
To add you voice and commitment to this Africa-Wide Petition, please go to: http://www.campaign.yppdatwork.org
Target: President Zuma of South Africa
Sponsored by: Embrace Dignity Campaign
2010 World Cup
Large sporting events are known to increase levels of sex trafficking of women and girls and, from research conducted with our partners, we believe this year’s World Cup will have similar results. The United Nations estimates that some 80% of persons are trafficked for sexual exploitation and that the majority are women and children. South Africa is a destination for trafficking. One trafficked woman or child is one too many. South Africa’s constitution promotes human rights, human dignity, gender equality, women’s rights and children’s rights. Yet social, economic, racial and gender inequality persists. High levels of poverty among women exist in South Africa and neighbouring countries, making them vulnerable to sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The Embrace Dignity Campaign is a South African-based project of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – South Africa led by Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Loveday Penn-Kekana and administered by Mediatrice Barengayabo. Our mission is to advocate for legislation to end sexual violence and trafficking in women and children.
Embrace Dignity Signature Campaign
We have drawn up a petition to raise public awareness and invite all South Africans and our visitors to sign this petition and return it to us. We will hand the petitions to Parliament for action during the World Cup and when they consider the bills on trafficking and adult prostitution.
Embrace Dignity Petition
Sex trafficking and prostitution are ruining the lives of millions of women and girls around the world and in South Africa today. According to the United Nations, 80 percent of trafficked persons are trafficked for sexual exploitation. The vast majority of them are women and girls. This predatory business disrespects women’s right to human dignity, as enshrined in South Africa’s constitution, and preys on economic, sex and racial inequality to subject its victims to violence and health risks. It needs to stop. Do not buy women or children for sex and don’t support those who do!
Sign the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/embrace-dignity-campaign
Let’s welcome the world but keep out human traffickers, says Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge in this edited version of an open letter to President Jacob Zuma
As we prepare to host the world’s biggest sporting event , large numbers of visitors have begun to arrive in South Africa.
You have appealed to South Africans to welcome our visitors and to make this World Cup the best ever. We agree.
However, large sporting events are known to increase levels of sex trafficking. From research conducted with our partners, we believe this World Cup will be no different.
The United Nations estimates that some 80% of persons trafficked are trafficked for sexual exploitation and that the majority are women and children. South Africa is a prime destination for trafficking. One trafficked woman or child is one too many.
Our constitution promotes human rights, human dignity, gender equality, women’s rights and children’s rights.
Women joined the liberation movement so that we too could enjoy the fruits of freedom. We sacrificed, were imprisoned, exiled and some killed.
We kept the home fires burning. We built South Africa with our sweat and blood. We scrubbed floors, ironed, cooked and nursed small children – some not our own.
Yet social, economic, racial and gender inequality persists in our country, making us vulnerable to sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.
I wish to appeal to you as president to do your best to ensure that women and children will be safe during this period and beyond. You have the power to command the police to implement the laws we have passed to safeguard women and children.
South Africa is party to the UN conventions on the rights of women and children.
We have signed the Convention Against All forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which supplements the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.
We have adopted the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking. We have passed the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act 32 of 2007, which criminalises buyers of women for sexual exploitation. Yet large numbers of women abusers, pimps, brothel and strip-club owners go unpunished.
They are powerful men with money. They buy women’s bodies and bribe police.
Some government officials and researchers have said that the police must be left to fight real crime during the World Cup. Are crimes against women and children not real? Would you condone the breaking of some of our laws because the police are over-stretched?
Some have said the World Cup brings economic opportunities for women. At what cost, Mr President? Are women’s lives so cheap that they can be bought and sold?
The world should hang its head in shame that it has allowed women’s bodies to be commercialised and objectified.
Some have argued that there is a distinction between human trafficking and prostitution. If there were no prostitution, there would be no sex trafficking. This separation is made on the grounds that prostitution is ordinary work and that trafficking is only a problem if women are forced into this work. Ordinary?
The international trade in women for prostitution has greatly increased. It is a hidden trade, so estimates vary, but research puts the number of women being transported for prostitution around the world yearly at between 700000 and two million.
Wherever women and girls are impoverished or displaced they are at risk of traffickers.
Some human rights organisations and UN agencies have imbibed the language of choice and agency. Mr President, how much choice and agency does a woman or girl have who has no food to put on the table, or has been socialised to think that her body is for a man’s pleasure?
There are a number of common patterns for luring victims into situations of sex trafficking, including:
A promise of a good job in another country;
A false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation;
Being sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, boyfriends; and
Being kidnapped by traffickers.
Sex traffickers frequently subject their victims to debt-bondage – they tell them that they owe money, often relating to the victims’ living expenses and transport into the country – and that they must pledge their services to repay the debt.
They use a variety of methods to “condition” their victims, including starvation, confinement, beatings, physical abuse, rape, gang rape, threats of violence to them and their families, forced drug use and the threat of shaming the women by revealing their activities to families and friends.
Victims also face numerous health risks, including drug and alcohol addiction; physical injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, sterility, miscarriages, menstrual problems and forced abortions.
Victims are at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder – acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, and self-loathing.
Trafficking in women is not new. Slavery often involved trafficking and prostitution. Prostitution is the world’s oldest form of oppression.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Jewish women fleeing pogroms in eastern Europe were transported to Buenos Aires for prostitution.
In the ’20s Russian women were trafficked into China as a result of the poverty and famine of the post-revolutionary period. Russian women are again being trafficked following the fall of communism.
The 1949 UN Convention of the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others required the outlawing of brothels and resulted in their closure in many countries in the ’50s. The convention recognised that prostitution was not just the destination of trafficked women, but the reason that trafficking occurred.
There was an understanding that prostitution was incompatible with the dignity of women and must be ended if trafficking was to be ended.
The demand for prostitution determines supply. A strong call by men not to buy sex would eliminate demand and therefore supply. Mr President, South Africa must not become a pimp state.
Madlala-Routledge is head of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – South Africa and its Embrace Dignity Campaign
Despite the 2005 election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president, and the introduction of free and compulsory primary education, many young girls in this post-conflict West African nation continue to drop out of school to cook and clean for their family, or earn a meagre living selling food or fresh water on the streets.
They face discrimination, sexual violence, family pressures, early pregnancy, forced marriage, and harmful traditional practices. Three out of five Liberian women can’t read.
When Johnson-Sirleaf came to power four years ago, the Harvard-trained economist inspired dreams of a better future for the country’s women. With much fanfare, she launched a National Policy on Girls’ Education in April 2006, and hailed girls’ education as the “cornerstone” of development in Liberia. The Girls’ Education Unit was opened shortly after to implement the policy.
Beyond universal primary education and rebuilding destroyed schools, the national policy promises to cut girls’ secondary school fees in half, train more female teachers, punish teachers who sexually exploit students, and provide counseling.
Other measures aimed directly at the retention of girls include providing health services to girls in school to boost self-esteem, paying out small scholarships for their tuition, uniform, and copybooks, and conducting a nationwide awareness campaign for parents.
It also stipulates that “a separate budget line should be established in the education budget specifically for this purpose…”
Four years later, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has still not earmarked a budget to implement the policy.
Liberian families continue to struggle with rising secondary school fees. Only one out of 10 grade school teachers are women. Counseling, life skills and health services are almost non-existent. Girls are forced to trade sex for grades with teachers, or barter sex on the streets for financial support.
Statistically, the gender gap in Liberia’s elementary schools has narrowed. The most recent school census revealed that girls accounted for 47 percent of students registered at Liberia’s public primary schools, but only 31 percent at public high schools in 2007-2008.
Mannah credits free tuition, feeding programs by the World Food Program, and piecemeal scholarships by international donors for uniforms and writing materials.
Those numbers are misleading though. The census only measures enrolment at the beginning of the school year and does not consider the high drop out among girls several months later due to family obligations, teenage pregnancy, or poverty.
UNICEF maintains that statistics reveal lower enrolment and retention of girls after Grade Three. UNICEF Education Specialist, John Sumo, blames the Liberian Government for abandoning its girls’ education policy.
This prompted UNICEF to stop financing girls’ education projects through the Liberian Government in January 2009, instead choosing to funnel money to international NGOs. UNICEF also decided to revoke its funding of the Girls’ Education Unit’s salaries and operational costs as of January 2010.
There has been little accountability for the past four years at the Education Ministry. The Minister during that time, Joseph Korto, was removed from his post in May 2010, shortly after he was named in an audit for alleged misappropriation of huge sums of money.
Audits to track development loans and aid, as part of the requirements for debt forgiveness, revealed dubious scholarship schemes and false claims for new schools that were abandoned or left incomplete.
At his swearing-in ceremony, the new education minister, Othello Gongar, stated, “I have not come to MOE to criticise the works of my predecessors, but to rather start from where they stopped in order to make the system viable.”
Gongar pledged to lobby the national legislature to increase Education’s overall budget from roughly 8 percent to 25 percent of the $347 million dollar national budget.
In the budgetary cash contest, Liberian girls and women are competing with war-destroyed roads, electricity grid, limited running water and sewage systems, a dysfunctional justice system, and other institutional and infrastructural problems.
Back at the Ministry of Education, Lorpu Mannah shows up each morning at the Girls’ Education Unit. Though she’s no longer paid, she still writes proposals to international NGOs requesting money to sponsor night schools for teenage mothers, counseling centres in high schools, or scholarships for women who want to become teachers.
“To be frank, I do it out of sympathy for the young girls.”
From a longer article at http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51596
For legislator Ndèye Fatou Touré, the law will give a considerable boost to women. “Parity is a lifting of obstacles, an open door. This law will allow women equal access to decision-making,” she told IPS.
Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, the Socialist mayor of Louga in northwest Senegal, has urged women to mobilise. “The battle is only starting because we have to convince all the sceptics. But we will also have to educate women, provide them with training, build their capacity and even change behaviors and attitudes,” she said.
Fatou Kiné Diop, president of the non-governmental organisation Senegalese Council for Women (known by its French acronym, COSEF), said, “We must now support and educate communities so they can take ownership of the new law. We also call on the head of state to promulgate it, but especially civil society which now has important work to do in terms of monitoring.”
For Sophie Sall, a law student at the University Cheikh Anta Diop, the law reverses an injustice. “Women are essential to the country’s development. Unfortunately, they are absent in most decision-making bodies.”
She feels the new law opens new opportunities. “Decisions were made for (women) without their presence or even their opinion and resulted in policies which were often inappropriate because the main beneficiaries weren’t consulted. It is a major step forward in Senegalese women’s social progress.”
The bill is seen by NGOs as an important step in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Representation of women in political institutions is not high in Senegal. Women are over 52 percent of the total population, according to official statistics. But in the National Assembly, there are just 33 women legislators, representing 22 percent of the total. There are only seven women mayors out of a total of 107. There are almost no female councillors in rural areas.
However, there are some who are not welcoming the law with open arms. Liberal MP El Hadji Wack Ly sees it as discriminatory.
“This parity law favors the domination of one gender over another. If parity means equality but not egalitarianism, this law has no purpose,” he argues.
Momar Dieng, who heads the political desk at the daily newspaper ‘Le Quotidien’, believes that the law has been adopted too hastily.
“To vote for this kind of legislation that affects the social, religious, and political spheres, you must establish the broadest possible consensus. Because these are very sensitive issues,” he told IPS. “Having a majority vote doesn’t necessarily mean that anything goes. Social reality must be taken into account. People are still waiting for President Abdoulaye Wade to act on the much more pressing Family Code.”
Serigne Mansour Sall, member of the Tidianes religious confraternity in St. Louis, in northern Senegal, has lambasted the new law. He said the heads of religious bodies were not invited to take part in debate over it, which he considers ill-advisded in a country where 95 percent of the population is Muslim.
Alioune Tine, secretary-general of the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights (RADDHO, the Rencontre africaine des droits de l’homme), says the debate should remain calm.
“Gender parity doesn’t mean replacing men, but giving more visibility to women. If it is well understood it cause any social conflict. We have to develop the social and cultural conditions to accompany it,” he told IPS.
According to the coordinator of the AIDS Law Unit of the LAC, Amon Ngavetene, the women who are seeking redress after allegedly being sterilised without their consent, are not seeking compensation but the re-formation of the country’s health system.
He said several rights of the women have been violated, some of which include the right to reproduction and dignity.
Ngavetene called on the re-formation of the public health system that includes the training of medical staff on the rights of patients.
The first reports of the alleged forced sterilisation at state hospitals surfaced in 2007 and since February 2008, 15 individual cases have been documented. This, according to several civil society organisations, is only the tip of the ice-berg.
Speaking during the march this week, Rosa Namises, director of Women’s Solidarity Namibia, asked government to send a clear message that it will not tolerate the violation of women’s rights.
“We call on government to send a clear message that it will not tolerate the violation of any women’s fundamental right to make free and informed decisions about her own body and health, particularly with regard to reproductive choices, and further that it is actively pursuing initiatives to end the discrimination against people living with HIV. We hope this will mark an end to this flagrant violation of HIV-positive women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights in Namibia,” said Namises, before handing over a petition to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
She said in order to ensure that this does not happen again, government must immediately issue a circular to both public and private health facilities explicitly prohibiting them from sterilising patients without their consent.
Namises further asked the government to review and update current reproductive health policies and guidelines, to ensure that all health care workers receive adequate training about the need for patients to receive quality and non-discriminatory medical care, regardless of their HIV status, as well as conduct a public awareness campaign on the issue.
“We ask that the Namibian government conduct a public enquiry on the issue of sterilisation without informed consent and ensure that women who have been sterilised receive just and fair compensation for their loss, including option of sterilisation reversal.”
The case of three HIV positive women who claim that they also have been sterilised and are seeking compensation from government, ended in court today (Friday, 4 June).
One of the women testified that she was asked to sign several forms on the day she was sterilised and only after the procedure.
She said the nurses did not explain to her what the forms were for and she was also experiencing too much pain, to pay any mind.
In support of the women, several activities such as hospital sit – ins were organised. The sit-ins started on last Wednesday and ended Friday.
A petition signed by more than 1000 people was also handed over to the Ministry of Health last week.
They were pardoned during a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
But a government minister told the BBC the men could be re-arrested if they continued their relationship.
The case sparked international condemnation and a debate about homosexuality in the country.
Monjeza, 26, and Chimbalanga, 20, were released from prison on Saturday evening, hours after Mr Mutharika announced their pardon.
Gift Trapence, director of the campaign group Centre for the Development of the People (Cedep) which had been supporting the couple, said they had been taken separately to their home villages.
“The prison authorities told them they had been given instruction from above that they should take them to their respective homes,” he told the AFP news agency.
Mr Trapence said they had been “warmly welcomed by their respective relatives” when they arrived home.
But Patricia Kaliati, Malawi’s Minister of Gender and Children, said Monjeza and Chimbalanga’s release did not mean they could continue their relationship.
“It doesn’t mean that now they are free people, they can keep doing whatever you keep doing,” she said.
Ms Kaliati said they could be rearrested if they “continue doing that”.
The men’s lawyer said they were unlikely to be treated in the same way if they were arrested again.
“The pardon only applies to the offence under which they were convicted. If, for example, they go back and the state is of the view that they have recommited the offence, the pardon will not apply,” said Mauya Msuku.
Monjeza and Chimbalanga were arrested in December last year, a day after they celebrated their engagement and had been in custody ever since.
They were convicted of engaging in gay sex under a law dating back to colonial rule by Britain and sentenced to 14 years with hard labour.
Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa said their actions went “against the order of nature”.
But on Saturday, Mr Mutharika said he was pardoning the pair on humanitarian grounds.
“In all aspects of reasoning, in all aspects of human understanding, these two gay boys were wrong – totally wrong,” he said.
“However, now that they have been sentenced, I as the president of this country have the powers to pronounce on them and therefore, I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released.”
His comments came after a meeting with UN chief Mr Ban, who praised the decision as courageous.
But Ms Kaliati insisted that the president had not bowed to international pressure in releasing the men.
She said Malawi would not now reconsider its laws against homosexuality.
“We have our own rules and laws which we are following, and our own constitution. Our constitution is not the same as your constitution,” she said in her BBC interview.
Many of Britain’s former colonies have similar laws outlawing homosexuality – India overturned it last year.
In Uganda, MPs are debating whether to strengthen the laws to include the death penalty for some gay people – a move which has infuriated Western governments and human rights campaigners.
Armed with a search warrant from Chief Superintendent Peter Magwenzi, Detective Inspector Chibvuma, on Friday evening led a team of police officers to search for dangerous drugs and pornographic material at the GALZ offices in Harare’s Milton Park. The police arrested two GALZ employees Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, who were detained at Harare Central Police Station on Friday and were still in police custody Saturday.
The police accused GALZ of contravening Section 157 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 and Section 32 (1) of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act Chapter 10:04 by allegedly keeping pornographic material and dangerous drugs. Although two lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) representing the two GALZ workers, had by Saturday not yet ascertained how much material was taken by the police, various computers and some documents were seized by the police during the raid.
ZLHR lawyers Dzimbabwe Chimbga and David Hofisi attended at Harare Central Police Station on Friday evening, but police remained adamant that the two GALZ employees would be detained despite complaints from Chademana about her diabetic condition. On Saturday the police refused to allow the lawyers access to their clients. It remained unclear what charges would be preferred against the two GALZ employees but lawyers said they would continue to make attendances at Harare Central Police Station.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has a history of harassing lesbians and gays. In the past President Mugabe has attacked homosexuality, which he has described as foreign to African culture. He once described homosexuals as “worse than dogs and pigs” when they attempted to assert their rights. Last week a Malawian Judge sentenced a gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza to a maximum of 14 years in prison with hard labor under Malawi’s anti-gay legislation. The case has drawn international condemnation and sparked a debate on human rights in this conservative southern African country.
Meanwhile the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) condemned leaders of Malawi, Zimbabwe and Uganda for their anti-gay stance. “SAMWU has become increasingly concerned by the homophobic utterances of several national leaders on the continent over the last few years. Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Museveni in Uganda and a few others have made intolerable comments about the rights of consenting adults to engage in a same sex relationship. One has to ask what is it exactly that irks these ‘revolutionary’ leaders? What are they afraid of? However, recent events in Malawi have surpassed even these levels of ignorance and prejudice,” Tahir Sema, SAMWU national spokesperson told The Zimbabwean in Johannesburg.
“We call upon the SADC countries and the African Union to disassociate themselves from the judgement that has been made in Malawi, and further to urge the immediate release of the two individuals concerned, for all charges to be dropped, and for a complete review of colonial homophobic legislation. We also call for an end to police and media harassment of minorities that serves no purpose but to encourage division and misery. This is the very least that should be done at this time. Homosexuality exists in all of our societies. It is a reality, however difficult it is for some to accept this simple fact.”
A Malawi gay couple were sentenced to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labour for holding the country’s first same-sex wedding, which landed them with a sodomy conviction.
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were arrested on December 28 after their symbolic wedding and accused of violating “the order of nature”. They have been in jail ever since.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malawi and most other African countries.
“I sentence you to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour each,” magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa told the two men in a courtroom in the commercial capital Blantyre.
“I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public be protected from people like you so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example,” the judge added.
“Malawi is not ready to see its sons getting married to its sons.”
The couple looked subdued when the sentence was handed down and were quickly rushed out of the packed courtroom.
As they were escorted away under heavy police guard, hundreds of curious onlookers outside the court shouted at them, with one woman yelling, “Malawi should never allow homosexuality at any cost.”
The sentence could be appealed, said the judge.
Former colonial power Britain and the United States expressed “deep disappointment” at the ruling.
“We view the criminalisation of sexual orientation and gender identity as a step backward in the protection of human rights in Malawi,” said a statement by State Department the United States.
“The sentence is entirely disproportionate and against international human rights principles,” said Ireland’s overseas development minister Peter Power.
“We are working with our partners for a strong EU response,” he added.
Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries. Nearby South Africa is the only country on the continent to recognise same-sex marriages.
Thirty-eight out of 53 countries criminalise consensual gay sex, which is punishable by death in some nations, according to Human Rights Watch.
In January, the Malawi couple appealed to the Constitutional Court to toss out the case, but the top court refused to consider that appeal.
Their lawyer Mauya Msuku, who has been hired by the country’s underground gay-rights group, the Centre for the Development of People, argued that laws banning homosexuality “violate the right to marry and find a family”.
Msuku said he would consult with his clients on filing an new appeal.
In an unusually graphic language, Usiwa Usiwa convicted Monjeza of “having carnal knowledge of Tiwonge through the anus, which is against the order of nature.”
Chimbalanga was found guilty of “permitting buggery”, which the judge said was similarly contrary to the natural order.
Human rights organisations said the sentence was a blow for minority groups and the fight against AIDS.
Undule Mwakasungura, director of Malawi’s Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, said the sentence would drive gays into hiding.
“We have many of them who need to publicly access information and HIV and AIDS medical care. It’s a big let-down,” he said.
Richard Bridgen of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre said the sentencing was a “real tragedy for Malawian society.”
“The deep point is that they have the right to be different… the right to live the life they choose,” said Bridgen.
But Protestant churches in Malawi have urged the government to uphold its ban on homosexuality, which religious leaders described as “un-Christian”.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iuGE0gvuWA4_D34FDFGjdso-nu-g
See also:
* Gay Malawi couple separated in prison
* http://www.petertatchell.net/international/tiwonge-&-steven-split-up-by-malawi-authorities.html for information about how to support the campaign against this sentence and link to a petition
A five-year campaign to boost the number of UN female peacekeepers is progressing steadily in police units, but “seems to be stuck” at a miniscule percentage in military contingents, Lt-Col Alejandro Alvarez of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), told IRIN.
The UN Secretariat has repeatedly emphasized the proven benefits of having more female peacekeepers, especially in regions where sexual violence has been or still is a serious problem, but there are hiccups.
“The Secretary-General can set any number [of female peacekeepers], but … It depends on the will of the countries that are contributing the troops. They say, ‘We don’t have enough female troops, so we cannot send them’; there is also always the case of countries having the women, and just not sending them, but that is an internal problem,” Alvarez, a personnel officer, said.
The advantages of a strong presence of female peacekeeper in conflict and post-conflict zones include creating a safer space for girls and women who have suffered sexual violence, said Marianne Mollman, advocacy director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, a global watchdog organization.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a campaign in August 2009 to lift the percentage of women peacekeepers to 20 percent in police units by 2014, and to 10 percent in military contingents.
Yet only 2.3 percent of the 88,661 military peacekeepers serving in 17 different missions are women, whereas in 2008 they made up 2.18 percent of military contingents, Alvarez said. Approximately 8.2 percent of the 13,221 UN police are women, a figure that jumped from 6.5 percent in April.
In 2000, Resolution 1325 of the UN Security Council called on the Secretary-General to “progress on gender mainstreaming throughout peacekeeping missions and all other aspects related to women and girls.”
Subsequent Security Council resolutions outlined more comprehensive methods for using peacekeeping missions to protect women and girls from sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict zones, including increasing the number of women peacekeepers.
The first all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU), deployed in Liberia in 2007, made a substantial difference to the women victimized in rampant sexual violence during the country’s civil war, said Lea Angela Biason, a DPKO gender affairs associate.
The UN Mission in Liberia noted that after the deployment of Indian female peacekeepers, the percentage of women in the national police force rose from 13 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2009.
Women police were often placed in the front lines in riots, as they can reportedly help calm raucous crowds, Biason said, and the presence of women in uniform also appeared to encourage Liberian women to report instances of sexual violence.
The UN Secretariat plans to send an all-female FPU from Bangladesh to Haiti, where reports of sexual violence in the camps for internally displaced persons abound.
Nigeria deploys the second-greatest number of female peacekeepers – 349 women out of 4,951 troops – and has announced plans to send an all-female FPU to Liberia.
In Darfur, western Sudan, 136 female police officers from Ghana, Gambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have joined the UN Mission there since February, Biason said. Nearly 200 female police officers in Rwanda recently passed a test qualifying them for deployment.
Comfort Lamptey, a gender adviser to DPKO, told IRIN that gender scenarios in troop-contributing countries were reflected in the peacekeepers they sent. “If we look globally, you see more women in national police units than you do in the military – the countries then have more women to send for their [peacekeeping] police units.”
Alvarez said countries that could send women sometimes refrained out of concern about the conditions they would be working under, and it was not always certain that they would be working alongside their male counterparts. Bangladesh, one of the largest troop-contributing countries, considered women as “low-ranked personnel, and puts them in the kitchen”, Alvarez said.
Women might constitute 20 percent of peacekeeping units by 2014, but Lamptey acknowledged that some officials thought it “completely unrealistic” to try replicating this on the military front.
“It’s a work in progress,” she said. “A lot of member states are beginning to understand that when it comes to peacekeeping missions, you really do need to have both women and men in the military and police equally represented; they are beginning to understand the merits of that.”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/74b640a1a22bc8e3f81b01db97c877fc.htm
Humanitarian workers in Liberia worry that as the UN and NGOs scale down aid operations, the fight against sexual violence will suffer, given a limited capacity in national institutions to take it on.
The fight against sexual violence, led by the Ministry of Gender and Development, is part of a wider four-year national plan to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security; the resolution was passed in 2000 but Liberia – where a 14-year war ended in 2003 – began implementing it just last year.
The action plan relies heavily on aid agencies and on international donors for funds, said the Norwegian Refugee Council’s coordinator for sexual and gender-based violence, Anna Stone. “But after the [presidential and legislative] elections next year many international NGOs, including the NRC, will scale down operations in Liberia.”
Many aid agencies, including NRC and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) – also active in the fight against sexual violence – are gradually cutting their programmes in Liberia. And the post-election role of the UN mission (UNMIL), which has supported much of the government’s anti-sexual-violence programmes, is uncertain. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87122]
“Agencies do move out and there is high turnover,” agreed Madhumita Sarkar, programme adviser at the joint UN-government SGBV (sexual and gender-based violence) programme in the capital Monrovia. “That is a very big concern. This is the wrong time to withdraw – even though Liberia is not in a conflict state. Until now we’ve tried to work on building local capacities and we now need to continue that, and hand over projects to the government.”
“We will go back to zero if people just withdraw now,” she said.
Meanwhile the gender ministry is turning to donors to fund its programmes over the long term, aware that international support my wane; the ministry recently received funding from Italy and the United States, according to Deputy Gender and Development Minister Annette Kiawu.
Sexual violence consistently comes first or second (after armed robbery) in monthly crime statistics in Monrovia, with most victims being children, according to MSF.
Legal recourse is rarely an option for survivors, due to a lack of means as well as weak law enforcement, health NGOs in Liberia say. But most rapes are committed by family members and are not reported, according to the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in a 2009 study, “Nobody Gets Justice Here”
Attorneys often do not take it as seriously as armed robbery, as nothing is “stolen” in the attack, an aid worker told the NIIA.
NRC is trying to encourage women to report sexual crimes through a nationwide collective of women’s groups, called WISE Women; the organization promotes women’s rights and develops practical responses to sexual crimes, such as how to raise money for a medical exam.
Rita Kollie, 17, was the youngest member at a WISE Women meeting in Bong County in central Liberia, earlier this month.
“I was curious to find out what women’s rights are about. We are not taught about that at school,” she said. “Of course I am happy that we have a woman president, but we still don’t have women role models in Bong County.”
Whatever institutions lead the sexual violence fight, NIIA says, the approach must focus more on the political, cultural and economic roots of such crimes. NIIA says the current UN approach is too fragmented and shortsighted. Groups working to reduce sexual violence must harmonize statutory and traditional law, saying international actors do not have an adequate grasp of the latter, it points out.
The government has made some steps at the policy level: It now has a policy to promote women’s rights; it has strengthened rape and inheritance laws; and it has created a secretariat to implement Resolution 1325. But implementation still lags behind, UNMIL-government representative Sarkar told IRIN.
For instance, according to the NRC’s Stone, while Liberia is one of only two countries in the world that has specially assigned police units for protection of women and children, the units helped convict just five perpetrators in 2009.
NRC trains the units on how to address sexual crimes, but efforts are hampered by a lack of means and equipment, says NIIA.
Further, few trained officers want to leave Monrovia to work in rural areas – one of several problems impeding the fight in rural zones: poor roads, inadequate facilities, difficult access to some communities and lack of funds for counties, says the NRC.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/2bcf1dd496c2dce96c7aa643ba188427.htm
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