Africa for Women's Rights | L'afrique pour les droits des femmes

RATIFY! Although Uganda ratified the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, it is yet to ratify its Optional Protocol and has not ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).

RESPECT! The Coalition of the Campaign is particularly concerned about the following continued violations of women’s human rights in Uganda: persistent discriminatory laws and customs; physical violence; unequal access to property; and limited access to justice.

Some positive developments… The Coalition of the Campaign acknowledges the recent adoption of several laws and policies aimed at improving respect for women’s rights, including: • The adoption of the Female Genital Mutilation Act in December 2009, which criminalises female circumcision. The Act is expected to come into force in 2010. • The adoption of the Domestic Violence Act in November 2009, criminalizing domestic violence. • The adoption of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act in 2008, which prescribes penalties from 15-years to life imprisonment. • The launch by the government in November 2009 of a Road Map aimed at reducing maternal mortality, however, this campaign is silent on unsafe abortions.

DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE PERSIST

In Law__

In Uganda statutory law is applied alongside customary and religious laws. While the Constitution of 1995 provides for equal rights between men and women (article33) and holds laws and customs that violate the constitutional guarantees on equality to be void (Article 33(6)); discriminatory statutory, customary and religious laws remain in force.

Discriminatory statutory laws include: Property: According to the Succession Act, property is apportioned among the deceased’s family members according to fixed proportions and widows stand to inherit 15%. If there is more than one wife, the property is shared. Under Section 27 of the Succession Act, girls cannot inherit their father’s property. FIDA-U and other women’s rights organisations successfully petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare this provision unconstitutional, however, the Attorney General has yet to reform the Succession Act to address this issue.

Most areas of family law are currently regulated by discriminatory customary and religious laws, for example: Marriage and divorce: Although under statutory law, the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years for both men and women, according to customary law marriages are frequently arranged for minors, especially in rural areas. In 2004, it was estimated that 32% of girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married, divorced or widowed. Polygamy is authorised under customary and Islamic law and women in polygamous relationships have no protection in the event of dissolution of the union. In some ethnic groups, custom also provides for men to “inherit” the widows of their deceased brothers (levirat). Custody of children: Although the Status of Children Act 1996 provides that both parents are responsible for supporting children, under customary law men have sole parental authority. A draft marriage and divorce law was presented to Parliament at the end of 2009. The draft law grants women the right to divorce spouses for cruelty, the right to choose their spouse and prohibits the practice of levirat. It also provides for equal division of property and finances in the event of divorce. However, the draft does not prohibit polygamy nor does it prohibit the “bride price” but only provides for it to be non-refundable. The proposed law would govern Christian, Hindu, and traditional marriages but not Muslim marriages. Thus many women in Uganda - where an estimated 12% of the population are Muslims - would be excluded from its application. Property: According to customary law, women do not have the right to own or inherit property.

In Practice Although several laws have recently been enacted to improve the situation of women, their implementation is hindered by traditions and deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes, especially in rural areas. Years of armed conflict in the northern parts of the country have also contributed to massive violations of women’s human rights.

Violence There is widespread violence against women in Uganda and perpetrators benefit from generalised impunity, in part due to widespread social attitudes condoning such violence. Law enforcement officials rarely intervene in cases of domestic violence and wife beating is viewed as a husband’s prerogative. Rape is a serious problem in Uganda. Indeed, most rape cases are unreported and most recorded complaints are not investigated. In 2008, of the 477 rapes that police recorded, 115 were taken to court; there were no convictions. Rape was widely used as a weapon of war during the civil war since 1986. An undetermined number of women and girls were victims of abduction, rape and sexual slavery, perpetrated by rebel forces and the Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF). Female genital mutilation (FGM) remains a common practice within the Sabiny Tribe, in the Kapchorwa district in the East and the Pokot ethnic group along the northeastern border. __ Obstacles to access to education__ Girls and boys have equal access to education in law, and they are represented almost equally in lower grades; however, the proportion of girls in higher school grades remains low, partly due to the fact that families traditionally favor boys when financially supporting their education. Parents’ inability to afford schooling correlates highly with the occurrence of child labor in rural areas. According to estimates in 2007, only 66 percent of females are literate compared with 82 percent of males. The drop-out rate of girls is higher due to other factors e.g. access to sanitary facilities, school-feeding, etc.

Obstacles to access to property Although there are no laws preventing women from owning land in Uganda, the custom of male inheritance has resulted in the vast majority of women being excluded from land ownership. Whilst women do most of the agricultural work, it is estimated that they own only 7 percent of agricultural land. To counter this trend and curb the widespread dispossession of wives and widows, activists have campaigned for reforms to Uganda’s property laws to provide for spouses to be deemed co-owners of “family land,” ie. Land on which the married couple lives and depends. __ Obstacles to access to justice__ Ugandan women do not have adequate access to justice to claim, in particular as a result of inadequate information on their rights and laws protecting them, social pressure, cost of procedure and lack of training of law enforcement personnel trained on women’s rights.

THE COALITION OF THE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON THE AUTHORITIES OF UGANDA TO: • Reform or abolish all discriminatory laws, in conformity with CEDAW.

• Take all necessary measures to enforce constitutional provisions rendering void discriminatory laws and customs, including implementation of campaigns to raise awareness of community and religious leaders on women’s rights.

• Ensure the full implementation of the Domestic Violence Act 2009 and the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2009, including by ensuring that victims of violence have access to immediate means of redress and protection and that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished; implementing training for law enforcement personnel, the judiciary and health workers; implementing public awareness campaigns and adopting a zero tolerance policy on all forms of violence against women.

• Eliminate all forms of discrimination with respect to the ownership, co-sharing and inheritance of land.

• Increase women’s access to education, including by expanding free education and addressing socio-economic and cultural factors that impede access to education.

• Take all necessary measures to ensure women’s access to justice, including by ensuring that women are aware of their rights and of mechanisms of access to justice; and providing access to free legal representation.

• Strengthen efforts to address stereotypical attitudes about the roles and responsibilities of women and men, including educational measures, awareness-raising and public education campaigns directed at women and men.

• Include women, from all ethnic groups, in national reconciliation and peace building initiatives, in accordance with UN Resolutions 1325 and 1820, and ensure that such initiatives include measures of accountability, redress and rehabilitation for women and girls who have been victims of violations.

• Ratify the Maputo Protocol and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

• Implement all recommendations issued by the CEDAW Committee, in August 2002.

Principal sources • Focal Points: FHRI, FIDA-U • Recommendations of the CEDAW Committee, August 2002 • AFROL, Gender profile, www.afrol.com • Inter Parliamentary Union, www.ipu.org • Wikigender, www.wikigender.org

THE CAMPAIGN FOCAL POINTS IN UGANDA

Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) FHRI is an independent, non-partisan human rights NGO established in 1991. FHRIconducts human rights monitoring, promotes access to justice for poor and vulnerable groups and raises awareness. FHRI’s main activities on women’s rights include: promoting access to justice; providing pro-bono legal assistance to women victims of violations; and raising awareness on domestic violence and women’s rights. www.fhri.or.ug

Association of Women Lawyers in Uganda (FIDA-U) FIDA-U is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit making civil society organization, composed of Ugandan women lawyers, which aims to achieve observance of the law, human rights and gender equality. www.fidauganda.org

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RATIFY! While Botswana has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol, Botswana has so far failed to ratify – or even sign – the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).

RESPECT! The Coalition of the Campaign is particularly concerned about the following continued violations of women’s human rights in Botswana: application of discriminatory customary laws; access to property; violence against women; access to decision-making positions; access to employment and health services; and the persistence of discriminatory stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes.

SOME POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS...

The Coalition of the Campaign acknowledges several developments in recent years aimed at improving respect for women’s rights, including:

• The adoption of the Domestic Violence Act in 2008, which criminalises many acts of gender-based violence and provides some protection to the victims.
  
• The adoption of the Abolition of Marital Power Act in 2007 which abolished the common law principle of marital power, according to which the husband was the sole administrator of the family estate, and replaced it with the principle of equality of the spouses with respect to the joint matrimonial assets. However, customary and religious marriages are unaffected by these reforms. The Act also abolished the common law principle of unity of matrimonial residence and allows women to choose their place of residence.
  
• The adoption of the Children’s Act 2009 (not yet in force) under which birth certificates contain the names of both parents.
  

BUT DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE PERSIST

In Law

Botswana has a dual legal system, under which customary law is applied alongside common law. While there have been several reforms of discriminatory provisions under the common law, customary law remains particularly prejudicial to women’s rights, perpetuating unequal power relations between men and women and strengthening stereotypes on the role of women in society.

Although the Constitution of Botswana contains a provision on non-discrimination, under clause 15(4)(c) the prohibition does not apply to: “adoption, marriage, divorce,burial, devolution of property on death or other matters of personal law”.

Customary law remains deeply discriminatory against women, in particular in the areas of family and property law. For example:

Marriage: While the Marriage Act was amended in 2001 to specify 18 years as the minimum age for marriage for both sexes with parental consent, many marriages take place under customary law according to which there is no such limit. The principle of marital power continues to apply to marriages under customary and religious law. Women are considered legal minors and require their husband’s consent to buy or sell property and land, apply for a bank loans, and enter into legally binding contracts. Customary law authorises polygamy with the consent of the first wife, but it is not a common practice.

Separation: In case of separation, custody is traditionally granted to the husband’s family. Mothers have only the right to visit. Although the Affiliation Proceedings Act of 1999 mitigated discrimination against children born out of wedlock, allowing women or care-givers to seek maintenance from the father; under customary law an unmarried mother has no right to receive such maintenance. The mother’s own father has a duty to support the child.

Inheritance: A widow has no right to inheritance from her husband; all property passes to the eldest son. If the husband had no sons, his eldest daughter can inherit but in such case property is administered by her male guardian.

In Practice

Violence

Violence against women remains highly prevalent. Although the Domestic Violence Act 2008 criminalised many forms of violence against women, under customary law and common rural practices men are perceived to have the right to “chastise” their wives. The majority of crimes are unreported and those complaints that are registered are rarely effectively investigated and prosecuted. In 2009, it was estimated by the United Nations that 3 in 5 women in Botswana have experienced some form of domestic violence. Botswana has also recently seen an increase in cases of murder of women by their partners.

By law, the minimum sentence for rape is ten years, however, the majority of perpetrators are not prosecuted or convicted. Marital rape is not criminalised. As a result post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is not provided to married women who have been raped by their spouses. The Domestic Violence Act contains other significant gaps. For example, it empowers police officers to remove survivors of domestic violence from their residences but does not provide for the creation of shelters for victims of violence. Botswana currently has one such shelter, run by a NGO.

Under-representation in political life

While the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declaration on Gender and Development includes a commitment to achieving at least 30% representation of women in political and decision making structures by 2005, Botswana has failed to take effective measures to increase representation, for example by introducing a quota system. In 2008, there were only 7 women in the 61 seat National Assembly,

4 women in the 24 member cabinet and 4 women in the 35 seat House of Chiefs (an advisory upper chamber to the National Assembly). There were 3 female judges in the 13 seats High Court. In the October 2009 elections, of a total of 117 candidates, only 10 were women and only two were elected to parliament.

Obstacles to access to education and employment

Whilst some efforts have been made by the government to increase girls’ access to education, girls continue to drop out of education due to pregnancy, early marriage or to earn money to support their families. Although the law prohibits sexual harassment, it remains a serious problem both in schools and in the workplace. Employment legislation has been reformed to remove some discriminatory provisions (in particular those prohibiting women from working in mines, industrial and agricultural work at night) and in 2008 women were authorised to serve in the military. Yet, women mainly occupy junior positions or are employed in the informal sector and thus have no access to social security benefits. Although there have been increases in women occupying high level positions in the private and public sector, they remain under represented (31% in 2007). Women’s limited access to property and credit also form major obstacles to the establishment of businesses.

Obstacles to access to health

The very high prevalence of HIV/ AIDS and the practice of unsafe abortions remain a major problem. The Criminal Code criminalises abortion, unless pregnancy is a result of rape, defilement, or incest, poses a physical or mental health risk to the pregnant woman, or if the unborn child would suffer from or later develop serious physical or mental abnormalities or disease.

Obstacles to access to justice

Obstacles include a lack of information on women’s rights and the laws protecting them, social pressure, a culture of silence and legal costs. Law enforcement agents have not been sufficiently trained on how to deal with cases of gender-based violence.

Furthermore, there is no specific law implementing CEDAW in national legislation and enabling its provisions to be invoked before the courts.

THE COALITION OF THE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON THE AUTHORITIES OF BOTSWANA TO:

• Reform or repeal all discriminatory statutory laws, in conformity with CEDAW, including by abolishing article 15(4)(c) of the Constitution and widely disseminating statutory laws protecting women’s rights.
  

• Harmonise civil, religious and customary law, in conformity with CEDAW and ensure that where conflicts arise between statutory legal provisions and customary or religious law, the statutory provisions prevail.
  

• Strengthen laws and policies to protect women from violence and support victims, including by criminalising marital rape; establishing a legal aid system for women victims of violence; ensuring effective prosecution and punishment of offenders; implementing awareness-raising programmes for the general population; and establishing shelters for women victims of violence.
  

• Increase women’s access to education and employment, including by addressing socio-economic and cultural factors that impede access to education; and enforcing legislation on sexual harassment.
  

• Increase women’s representation in decision-making positions, in conformity with CEDAW and the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development, including through the adoption of temporary special measures such as quotas.
  

• Ensure women’s access to health services, including by intensifying efforts to combat HIV/aids; providing PEP to women victims of rape, including marital rape; and reforming the Penal Code to decriminalise abortion in all circumstances.
  

• Eliminate discrimination against women concerning access to property, including by raising awareness on land and property rights, especially of rural women, and expanding legal assistance to women wishing to file claims of discrimination.
  

• Ensure women’s access to justice, including by adopting specific law to implement CEDAW into national legislation and enable its provisions to be invoked before the national courts; implementing training for all law enforcement personnel; ensuring that women are aware of their rights; providing access to free legal representation.
  

• Eliminate discriminatory cultural practices and stereotypes, including through awareness-raising programmes targeting women and men, traditional and community leaders and the media.
  

• Ratify the Maputo Protocol and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
  

• Implement all recommendations issued by the CEDAW Committee, in February 2010.
  

PRINCIPAL SOURCES

• Focal Points: DITSHWANELO and Emang Basadi
  
• Shadow report submitted to the CEDAW Committee, Botswana Council of NGOs (BOCONGO), October 2009
  
• Inter Parliamentary Union, www.ipu.org
  
• Wikigender, www.wikigender.org
  

THE CAMPAIGN FOCAL POINTS IN BOTSWANA

DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights
DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights is an NGO established in 1993. It is the only organisation in Botswana dealing with the full range of human rights issues. It works towards achieving gender equality by incorporating it in actions to advocate for legislative changes, providing information to the public and offering paralegal services. www.ditshanelo.org.bw

EMANG BASADI
The EMANG BASADI Women’s Association was established in 1986 to lobby against discriminatory laws. Emang Basadi seeks to raise awareness on women’s rights through lobby, advocacy and capacity building and provides legal aid and counselling services for the empowerment of women.

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RATIFY! Although Ethiopia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, the government has not yet ratified its Optional Protocol or the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).

RESPECT! The Coalition of the Campaign is particularly concerned by the following continued violations of women’s rights in Ethiopia: persistence of discriminatory laws; discrimination within the family; violence against women, including harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation; and limited access to educa- tion, property, healthcare and justice.

SOME POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS…

The Coalition of the Campaign acknowledges the recent adoption of several laws and policies aimed at improving respect for women’s rights, including:

• The adoption of amendments to the Family Code in 2001 which raised the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 for both men and women (art. 7); abolished the provision conferring marital power on the husband as the head of the family; and added additional grounds for divorce (art. 76) by mutual consent of the spouses.
  

• The adoption of a the Criminal Code in 2005 which criminalised several harmful traditional practices, such as abduction (art. 586), female circumcision, infibulations or other harmful practices (art. 565, 566 & 567), early and forced marriage (art. 648), widow inheritance and polygamy (art. 650). It also criminalized domestic violence (art. 564).
  

• The adoption of the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2006-2010 in 2005.
  

BUT DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE PERSIST

In Law

The Constitution recognises the application of customary and religious laws alongside statutory law, in particular in the area of family law, which are particularly discriminatory against women (art. 34). Under this provision, disputes concerning marital, personal and family rights can be settled by Sharia courts.

Discrimination in the family

The practice of early marriage is common, particularly in rural areas. For example, in the Amhara region of Northern Ethiopia (where parents consent to their daughters’ consummated marriages when they are still as young as 10 or 12), 48% of women are married before the aged of 15. In 2005, it was estimated that 27 % of girls under 19 years are married. Despite the criminal prohibition on polygamy, it remains prevalent in rural Ethiopia. Although article 34(5) of the Constitution requires the consent of both parties for a dispute to be submitted to the jurisdiction of a Sharia court in the field of marital, personal and family rights; in practice women often accept settlement of their dispute before such court due to social pressure.

Violence

Domestic violence is highly prevalent in Ethiopia and widely socially condoned. A study conducted by the World Bank in July 2005 concluded that 88 percent of rural women and 69 percent of urban women believed their husbands had the right to beat them. Moreover the courts do not tend to consider domestic violence as a serious justification for granting a divorce.

Abduction of women, although a criminal offence, is still considered as a legitimate way of procuring a bride (especially in southern Ethiopia). It is estimated that approximately 8% of married women in the country have been abducted and forced into marriage. Although cases of abduction and rape are sometimes reported to the Ethiopian authorities, prosecutions are uncommon and rarely successful. Marital rape is still not recognised under the Criminal Code 2005.

Finally, although the Criminal Code, as well as the Constitution (article 35(4)), condemn harmful traditional practices, female genital mutilation (FGM) remains widely practised in Ethiopia, especially in the regions of Somali, Afar, Dire Dawa, Oromia and Harar. It is estimated that around 74% of the female population undergoes FGM. No criminal prosecutions have ever been brought against perpetrators of FGM.

Obstacles to access to education

Although there has been progress in access to all levels of education in Ethiopia, men have benefited more than women. Women who are married at an early age do not tend to go to school (it is estimated that only 9% of married girls attend school). It is estimated that rate of literacy for women over 15 is 23% whereas it is 50% for men. Women make up less than 30% of the undergraduate enrollment and 10% of graduate enrollment.

Obstacles to access to property

In nearly all regions of the country women have a very little access to land. When a husband dies, other family members often claim the land over his widow. As a result of their lack of ownership of property, women also have a relatively limited access to bank loans and micro-financing. In addition, married women often need the husband’s permission to obtain loans. Although the law does not discriminate against women in matters of inheritance, in practice, due to tradition or custom, women and girl children are excluded from inheriting property. In some Muslim families, male children can receives two third of the estate whereas females receive only one third and sons inherit family land.

Obstacles to access to health

Ethiopian women have limited access to prenatal and postnatal care and family planning services. It is estimated that only 10% of Ethiopian births were attended by skilled birth attendants. Levels of maternal and infant mortality rates are high and HIV/AIDS remain prevalent among women. Early pregnances also has serious consequences on the health of young girls, including obstretical fistulae. These high rates can also be explained by the lack of access to information on women’s reproductive health and rights; FGM; early marriage and non-medically supervised abortions.

Obstacles to access to justice

While women have legal recourse via the police and courts, societal norms and problems within the justice system (poor documentation, inadequate investigation and lack of special handling of cases involving women) prevent them from seeking legal redress, particularly in rural areas. In addition, under the traditional justice system, according to which conflict resolution takes place before Elders’ Councils, women are not allowed to participate in proceedings concerning them.

THE COALITION OF THE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON THE AUTHORITIES OF ETHIOPIA TO:

• Reform or repeal all discriminatory legislative provisions, in accordance with CEDAW.
  

• Harmonise statutory, religious and customary law in accordance with CEDAW, and ensure that where there is contradiction, statute law prevails.
  

• Ensure the effective application of the revised family code in all regions.
  

• Strengthen laws and policies to combat violence against women, in particular by including a provision sanctionning marital rape in the Criminal Code; establishing a legal aid system to provide assistance to women victims of violence; ensuring effective prosecution and punishment of offenders; implementing awareness raising programmes for the general population and training for all law enforcement personnel; and establishing shelters for women victims of violence.
  

• Take all necessary measures to combat the practice of FGM, in particular by ensuring that perpetrators are prosecuted; and by carrying out awareness-raising campaigns.
  

• Take measures to eliminate obstacles to education, by ensuring equal access at all levels of education, retaining girls in school and enable girlswho give birth to return to education, as well as developing awareness raising programmes to overcome stereotypes and traditional attitudes.
  

• Take measures to increase women’s access to property, including land and inheritance.
  

• Take all necessary measures to ensure women’s access to healthcare, including obstetric care and family planning, including ensuring access to contraception, in particular in rural areas; and providing access to safe abortions.
  

• Take all necessary measures to ensure women’s access to justice, in particular by training police and legal personnel; ensuring women’s access to legal aid; and inform women of their rights and legal recourse mechanisms.
  

• Adopt all necessary measures to reform or eliminate discriminatory cultural practices and stereotypes, including through awareness raising programmes targeting women and men, traditional and community leaders.
  

• Ratify the optional protocol to CEDAW and the Maputo protocol.
  

• Implement all recommendations issued by the CEDAW committee in January 2004.
  

PRINCIPAL SOURCES

• CEDAW Committee Recommendations, January 2004
  

• World Health Organisation, www.who.int
  

• UNICEF, www.unicef.org
  

• Wikigender, www.wikigender.org
  

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RESPECT! Although Mozambique has ratified the main international and regional women’s rights protection instruments, their provisions are often violated in law and practice. The Coalition of the Campaign is particularly concerned by the following continued violations of women’s rights in Mozambique: the persistence of discriminatory laws; violence against women; limited access to property, education and healthcare; and obstacles to access to justice.

SOME POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS…

The Coalition of the Campaign acknowledges the recent adoption of several laws and policies aimed at improving respect for women’s rights, including:

• The adoption of the new Family Code in December 2004 which provides for gender equality in all matters of family law (consent to marriage, divorce procedures, custody of children, sharing of household assets, etc.) and prohibits all practices that discriminate against women concerning polygamy, inheritance, minimum legal age for marriage, treatment of widows etc.
  

• Improvements in women’s political representation. During the December 2004 elections, 87 women were elected to the National Assembly, of a total of 250 members (34.8%). The Prime Minister, 24 ministers, 2 deputy ministers and 2 province governors are women.
  

• The adoption on 21 July 2009 of a law on domestic violence.
  

• The ratification of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW in 2008.
  

BUT DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE PERSIST

In Law

Although Mozambique has adopted several laws to protect women from discrimina- tion and violence, several discriminatory laws and regulations persist:

Several provisions of the Criminal Code, which dates back to the 19th century, are still awaiting reform.

Amendments to the law on domestic violence (arts. 35 and 36) which stipulate that the law must be applied taking into consideration the need to “protect the family”. Furthermore, the law on domestic violence does not sanction marital rape.

Abortion is only allowed under limited circumstances according to a Ministerial Decree of 1978 (only three hospitals are permitted to perform abortions). The criminalization of abortion in the vast majority of situations causes the deaths of thousands of girls each year. The Minister of Health submitted a law to parliament in 2009, but it remains pending.

The inheritance law, awaiting review, contradicts the new Family Code concerning women’s property rights.

The new Family Code of 2004 has been amended to delete provisions regarding the recognition of common law marriage. Yet, in Mozambique, 54% of “unmarried” couples are in de facto marriages.

In Practice

The weight of traditions, which continue to be protected in order to safeguard the “Mozambican identity”, together with the patriarchal vision of society, keep Mozambican women in a position of inferiority and impede the effective application of laws protecting their rights. Furthermore, it is not unusual for representatives of religious communities and traditional leaders to accuse women’s associations of advocating “immorality” and “wanting to destroy the family”.

Discrimination in the family

Although forbidden by law (article 30 of the Family Code sets the minimum age for marriage at 18 years, for both girls and boys), early marriage is common, especially in the rural areas (in 2004, it was estimated that 21% of girls were married by the time they were 15). This is one of the main reasons for the low school enrolment rate for girls and the very high rate of early pregnancy (it is estimated that 24% of women between ages 15 and 19 already have 2 children). The government has taken measures to raise awareness of the general population on these problems, but there are no specific penalties for forced marriage.

Furthermore, although article 16(2) of the Family Code requires marriages to be monogamous, polygamy remains common, especially in rural areas. Regarding inheritance, customs are especially discriminatory. Widows are often expelled from their family home and receive no inheritance from their husbands.

Violence

Although the adoption of the law on domestic violence in 2009 represents signifi- cant progress, its impact on the Mozambican society has been limited. A “domestic violence” unit has been created within the Ministry of the Interior but its means are too meagre to allow for effective action.

Domestic violence enjoys considerable social legitimacy stemming from a widespread view that the man, as the head of family, has the prerogative to use force to solve marital disputes conflicts. WLSA Mozambique Rape accounts for half the reported cases of violence against women. Sexual abuse at school, including harassment of girl students by their teachers or by fellow stu- dents, has increased alarmingly. According to the Mozambican law, incest is rape with aggravating circumstances, but there is no specific government policy to control this type of violence. There is no sanction for marital rape.

Obstacles to access to property

Although the Land Law adopted in 1997 and the Family Code 2004, explicitly provide for equal property rights, in practice the application of these provisions is problem- atic. Yet women account for more than half of those working the land. In this area, resistance to the law is especially strong due to the weight of traditions.

Obstacles to access to education

Many schools and health care facilities were destroyed during the civil war and by the natural disasters that struck the country in 2000, 2001 and 2007. Lack of schools is one of the reasons for the massive female illiteracy and the low female enrolment rate although, theoretically, primary school education (7 years) is compulsory. The annual national budget allocates 20% to education but only some 40% of children go to school. Notwithstanding the state’s awareness-raising campaign (radio and TV flashes, input from national celebrities and religious leaders) and the creation of boarding houses for girls who live too far away from school, most families still only consider sending their sons to school. Early marriage is also a major cause for girls to drop out of school.

Obstacles to access to health

Besides the common health problems facing the whole population – 52% of the coun- try benefits from health coverage – women also have to confront problems linked to maternal, sexual and reproductive health. Furthermore, AIDS affects more women than men. Although the government has introduced free prenatal care, the maternal death rate is still a high (480 per 100,000 births), although only half of what it was ten years ago.

Obstacles to access to justice

Women’s access to justice is impeded due to a lack information on their rights and the laws that protect them, the cost of proceedings and the lack of training of police and legal personnel. The creation of community tribunals to make up for the shortage of judges and lighten the burden of the official state courts has not improved the situation. The community tribunals are composed of only 10% women and are apply traditional law, which is particularly discriminatory against women.

THE COALITION OF THE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON THE AUTHORITIES OF MOZAMBIQUE TO:

• Reform all discriminatory legislation in conformity with CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol, particularly the discriminatory provisions of the Criminal Code, the Family Code, the law on domestic violence and inheritance law.
  

• Strengthen laws and policies to protect women from violence and support victims, including by: adopting all necessary measures to ensure the effective implementation of the law on violence against women, including domestic violence, and adopting measures to sanction marital rape; allocating additional financial resources to the fight against domestic violence; adopting measures, including severe sanctions, to eliminate sexual abuse of young girls in school.
  

• Eliminate obstacles to the education of girls and women, in particular by: ensuring equal access to all levels of education; adopting measures to retain girls within the education system, including pregnant pupils; and launching awareness raising programmes to overcome stereotypes and traditional attitudes.
  

• Take measures to guarantee women’s access to adequate health care, including obstetrical care and family planning; ensure access to contraception.
  

• Take all necessary measures to ensure women’s access to justice, in particular by addressing the shortage of judges, facilitating women’s access to these positions and ensuring training of police and legal personnel.
  

• Adopt all necessary measures to reform or eliminate discriminatory cultural practices and stereotypes, including awareness-raising programmes targeting men and women, governmental, traditional and community leaders.
  

• Ensure the implementation of all recommendations issued by the CEDAW committee in June 2007.
  

PRINCIPAL SOURCES

• Focal Point: WLSA-Mozambique
  

• Liga Moçambicana dos direitos humanos (LMDH), www.lmdh.org.mz
  

• FIDH and LMDH, Women’s rights in Mozambique, May 2007, www.fidh.org
  

• CEDAW Committee Recommendations, June 2007
  

• Inter-Parliamentary Union, www.ipu.org
  

THE CAMPAIGN FOCAL POINT IN MOZAMBIQUE

WLSA-Mozambique

WLSA-Mozambique is a member of the regional network Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA). The organisation seeks to promote gender equality through the identification of favourable initiatives and obstacles to legislative and political changes. www.wlsa.org.mz

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RATIFY! While Guinea-Bissau has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, it has still not ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).

RESPECT! The Coalition of the Campaign is particularly concerned by the following continued violations of women’s rights in Guinea Bissau: persistence of discriminatory legislation; discrimination within the family, violence against women, including female genital mutilation; limited access to education, decision-making positions, health services and justice; and the particular vulnerability of women in rural areas.

SOME POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS…

The Coalition of the Campaign acknowledges the recent adoption of several laws and policies aimed at improving respect for women’s rights, including:

• The ratification in 2007 of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
  

• The ratification of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW in August 2009.
  

• The introduction of strategies specifically targeting women in the National Strategy to Reduce Poverty.
  

BUT DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE PERSIST

In Law

In Guinea-Bissau, although customary law does not represent a formal source of law, it continues to be applied alongside statutory law.

Statutory Law Although article 25 of the Constitution establishes equality between men and women, many provisions of the Civil Code and Family Code, inherited from the colonial period (1966) remain discriminatory, including: legal age of marriage: the legal age for marriage is 14 years for women and 16 years for men.

Marital authority: According to section 1674 of the Civil Code, the husband is the head of the family. He can thus represent his wife and make decisions on all matters concerning their married life. According to article 1686, a wife cannot do business without the consent of the husband, unless she is the administrator of all the couple’s assets.

Administration of the couple’s assets: Art. 1678 of the Civil Code establishes that the couple’s assets belong to the husband as head of the family. The wife can only administer assets if the husband is prevented from doing so.

The Coalition of the Campaign also regrets the absence of an explicit provision within the Constitution stipulating that international and regional conventions take precedence over national laws. Finally, although articles 24 and 25 of the Constitution guarantee the principles of equality and non-discrimination, there is no precise definition of the term discrimination, in conformity with CEDAW.

Customary Law

Numerous provisions of customary law are discriminatory and widely applied, includ- ing the authorisation of early and forced marriages, polygamy and levirate.

In Practice

The effective application of laws protecting women’s rights conflicts runs up against the widespread patriarchal conception of society, especially in rural areas.

Discrimination in the family

Society in Guinea-Bissau is deeply patriarchal and authority is perceived to reside with the father as head of the family. Polygamy remains a common practice. Concerning inheritance, customary law applied by certain ethnic groups is particularly discrimi- natory against women, allowing inheritance only from father to son.

Violence

In the absence of a specific law prohibiting violence against women, violence including incest and domestic violence are particularly widespread. Although rape is criminalised, the law is rarely applied and perpetrators rarely prosecuted, notably because of a lack of resources. Female genital mutilation (FGM), or “fanado”, is not criminalised. The World Health Organization estimates that around half of women in Guinea-Bissau have been subjected to FGM, rising to 70% or 80% in the rural Fula and Mandingue communities.

Specific vulnerability of rural women

The situation of rural women (the majority of women in Guinea-Bissau) remains extremely precarious. These women live in extreme poverty. They have very little access to education, to health and other basic social services, to land ownership, to credit or to technology. Moreover, discriminatory customs and harmful traditional practices, such as early and forced marriage, polygamy and levirate are particularly widespread in rural areas.

Obstacles to access to education

Despite efforts made by the government in the area of education, including school lunch programmes, a system of micro-loans for parents who send their daughters to school, literacy programmes aimed at women and girls and a resolution of the Council of Ministers in 2006 establishing a 50% quota for educational grants to girls, women and girls continue to suffer from a lack of access to education. According to UNICEF, only 11% of girls attend primary school and 6% secondary school (figures for the period 2000-2007).

Under-representation in political life

The level of participation of women in political and public life remains very low. During the last legislative elections in November 2008, only 10 women were elected out of 102 members of parliament (i.e. 10%).

Obstacles to access to health

Despite efforts made by the government to reduce maternal mortality rates and to combat the country’s HIV/Aids epidemic, women suffer from a lack of access to adequate health services, notably because of inadequate health infrastructure and human and financial resources. Thus, the maternal mortality rate is particularly high (1100 per 100,000 births in 2005).

Obstacles to access to justice

Women in Guinea-Bissau face extreme obstacles in seeking justice to assert their rights. This is principally due to a lack of information on women’s rights and the laws that protect them, the cost of proceedings and lack of training for police and legal personnel.

THE COALITION OF THE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON THE AUTHORITIES OF GUINEA-BISSAU TO:

• Reform all discriminatory legislation in conformity with CEDAW, particularly the discriminatory provisions of the Civil Code and the Family Code; and ensure - by adopting a provision in the Constitution that international conventions have supremacy over national laws.
  

• Harmonise civil and customary law, in conformity with CEDAW, in order to prohibit forced marriage, levirate marriage, genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women.
  

• Strengthen laws and policies to protect women from violence and support victims, including by adopting a specific law to prohibit all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence and spousal rape; adopting the draft law to criminalise FGM; strengthening the political and operational mandate of the Institute for Women and Children; and allocate additional financial resources to the fight against domestic violence.
  

• Adopt measures aimed at eliminating obstacles to the education of girls and women, in particular by: taking measures ensure equal access to all levels of education ensuring, to retain girls within the education system, including pregnant; launching awareness programmes to overcome stereotypes and traditional attitudes; increasing the budget for education to improve educational infrastructure and teacher training; and establishing courses for adults aimed at reducing high levels of illiteracy among women.
  

• Take measures to encourage women’s participation in public and political life, in particular by adopting the bill on quotas.
  

• Take measures to ensure that all women have access to healthcare, including obstetrics and family planning, in particular by: ensuring access to contraception, particularly in rural areas; allocating additional funds to health, particularly in rural areas.
  

• Take emergency measures to improve the particularly vulnerable situation of women in rural areas.
  

• Take all necessary measures to ensure women access to justice, including by implementing training programmes for police and all legal personnel.
  

• Adopt all necessary measures to reform or eliminate discriminatory cultural practices and stereotypes, including awareness-raising programmes targeting men and women, governmental, traditional and community leaders.
  

• Ratify the Maputo protocol.
  

• Implement all the recommendations issued by the CEDAW committee in August 2009.
  

PRINCIPAL SOURCES

• Focal Point: LGDH
  

• Recommendations from the CEDAW Committee, August 2009
  

• UNICEF, www.unicef.org
  

• Interparliamentary union: www.ipu.org
  

• Wikigender, www.wikigender.org
  

THE CAMPAIGN FOCAL POINT IN GUINEA-BISSAU

• Liga Guineense dos direitos do homen (LGDH)
  

Created in 1991, LGDH aims at the promotion and protection of human rights, defense of peace and conflict prevention. Through a public denunciation, advocacy, lobbying and legal assistance to victims, it seeks to contribute to respect of the rights of women and children, freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the fight against torture.www.lgdh.org

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RATIFY! Liberia has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) without reservations. However, Liberia has not yet ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

RESPECT! Despite the ratification of the CEDAW in 1984, it has yet to be incorpo- rated into Liberian law and is not justiciable in Liberian courts. The Coalition of the Campaign remains particularly concerned by the following continued violations of women’s rights in Liberia: the persistence of discriminatory laws; unequal status within the family; violence against women; and limited access to education, employ- ment, decision-making positions and health services.

SOME POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS…

The Coalition of the Campaign acknowledges the recent adoption of several laws and policies aimed at improving respect for women’s rights, including:

• The enactment of the 2008 Gender and Sexually Based Violence Act, which provides for the establishment of a specialized court to try cases of sexual violence.
  

• The enactment of the 2006 Law on rape which includes spousal rape within the definition of rape.
  

• The creation of the National Gender-based Violence Plan of Action (2006) and the National Policy on Girls’ Education (2006).
  

• The election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as President in 2005, making Liberia the first African country to elect a woman President.
  

• The ratification of the Maputo Protocol in 2008.
  

BUT DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE PERSIST

In Law

Liberia has a dual legal system consisting of statutory and customary law. While Liberia has made efforts with the support of the United Nations Mission in Liberia to review national laws that discriminate against women, discriminatory statutory and customary laws remain in force particularly in the areas of family law.

Discriminatory provisions in statutory law include:

Nationality and citizenship: Under the 1973 Alien and Nationality Law, a child born abroad to a Liberian mother and a non-Liberian father is not automatically granted the mother’s nationality.

Discriminatory provisions under customary law include:

Married women are not allowed to appear before traditional courts without their husbands.

Women have no right to parental authority and no right to custody of children in the event of divorce or upon the husband’s death despite the passage of a new civil law on shared custody.

Although civil law allows for equal rights to inheritance and property, customary law does not allow for married woman to inherit from their husbands.

Polygamy, although prohibited under statutory law, is permitted under customary law.

In Practice

Discrimination in the family

The custom of early marriages remains widespread and many girls are married at age 12 or 13. In 2004, it was estimated that 36% of girls between age 15 and 19 years were married, divorced or widowed. More than one third of married women in Liberia between the age of 15 and 49 live in polygamous marriages.

Violence

Domestic violence, although prohibited by law, remains a widespread problem. Crimes of sexual violence are highly prevalent in Liberia. During the conflict, women and girls were particularly vulnerable to such crimes, which were generally committed with complete impunity. Under the Gender and Sexually Based Violence Act 2008, the crime of rape carries a sentence from 7 years to life imprisonment, however implementation of the law is inadequate. Despite recent government efforts, there remain insufficient services to support victims and access to justice is limited.There is no law prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM) and this practice remains widespread. An estimated 50% of women in Liberia have undergone some form of FGM.

Despite the passage of the 2005 Anti-Human Trafficking Act, human trafficking remains a serious problem in Liberia particularly for domestic work and other labour. Young women are especially at high risk for trafficking. Although penalties for trafficking range from one year to life imprisonment, enforcement remains weak.

Obstacles to access to education and employment

Despite ongoing efforts aimed at increasing enrolment and retention of girls in schools, structural and traditional barriers to the education of girls persist, including gender-based stereotypes and harmful traditional practices such as early marriage and teenage pregnancies. Furthermore, girls are vulnerable to sexual harassment in schools in the absence of laws penalising such harassment. Liberian women also face obstacles concerning access to employment. Women are highly concentrated in the informal sector and lack rights and social benefits including maternity protections.

Under-representation in political life

Although there have been some efforts made to increase women’s participation in public and political life, there remains a low level of participation of women at the highest levels of decision-making due in part to prevailing social and cultural attitudes. As of 2008, there were 4 female ministers, 12 female deputy ministers, 5 women in the Senate, 9 women in the House of Representatives, 5 female county superintendents, 1 female mayor of Monrovia, and 2 female Supreme Court associate justices.

Obstacles to access to health

Liberia’s health-care infrastructure was strongly affected by the conflict. Liberia lacks basic resources and capacity to implement its health-care policies. Liberia has high rates of maternal mortality (1200 per 100,000 births), due in part to the lack of sexual and reproductive health services and post-natal care, the lack of sex education and contraceptive usage, and the high rate of teenage pregnancy. HIV/AIDS is prevalent, particularly amongst women.

THE COALITION OF THE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON THE AUTHORITIES OF LIBERIA TO:

• Reform or repeal all discriminatory statutory laws in conformity with CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol.
  

• Harmonize statutory and customary laws in conformity with CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol and ensure that where conflicts arise between statutory provisions and customary law, statutory provisions prevail.
  

• Strengthen other measures to protect women from violence and support victims, including by removing obstacles to victims’ access to justice; ensuring effective prosecution and punishment of offenders; implementing training for all law enforcement personnel; and establishing shelters for women victims of violence.
  

• Increase efforts to ensure women’s equal access to education and employment, including measures to ensure equal access at all levels of education and by regulating the informal sector.
  

• Improve access, quality, and efficiency of public health care, strengthen efforts to reduce the incidence of maternal and infant mortality, increase awareness of and access to affordable contraceptive methods, improve sex education and establish family planning services.
  

• Adopt all necessary measures to reform or eliminate cultural practices and stereotypes that discriminate against women, including through awareness raising programmes targeting women and men, traditional and community leaders.
  

• Ratify the optional protocol to CEDAW.
  

• Implement all recommendations issued by the CEDAW committee in July 2009.
  

PRINCIPAL SOURCES

• Focal Point: RWHR
  

• CEDAW Committee Recommendations, July 2009.
  

• Wikigender, www.wikigender.org
  

THE CAMPAIGN FOCAL POINT IN LIBERIA

• Regional Watch for Human Rights (RWHR)
  

Regional Watch for Human Rights (formerly Liberia Watch for Human Rights) monitors compliances wtih human rights standards, assesses human rights situation in West African countries, and pressurizes governments and other influential actors to change their practices in order to improve respect for human rights. http://blog.rwhr.org

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Today Nadine Gordimer, Maryse Conde, Wole Soyinka, Shirin Ebadi, Mary Robinson and others join the campaign "Africa for Women's Rights" in calling on African governments to protect the human rights of women in law and practice.

Open Letter to African Heads of State

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Your Excellencies,

18 December 2009 will mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). We are writing to you in the name of all the actors of the campaign “Africa for Women’s Rights: Ratify and Respect!” to call upon you to respect the obligations to which you committed yourselves when ratifying this and other international treaties. We urge you to take this occasion to announce concrete measures to implement the human rights of women in your country and thereby to contribute to ending persistent and widespread discrimination and violence against women across the continent.

The campaign “Africa for Women’s Rights: Ratify and Respect!” was launched on 8 March 2009, by over one hundred African organizations in over 40 countries across Africa. The campaign aims to achieve the ratification without reservations of CEDAW and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), the harmonization of national laws with their provisions and adoption of all necessary measures to implement them.

Ratification of CEDAW has directly contributed to positive reforms in many African states, including the abolition of female genital mutilation, reform of discriminatory legislation, the adoption of legislation to protect women from violence and discrimination.

While these signs of progress provide encouragement to our movement, they remain woefully insufficient and across the continent discriminatory laws and practices remain widespread. Although, all African states except Somalia and Sudan have now ratified CEDAW, its provisions remain widely unimplemented, principally as a result of a lack of political will. We reiterate the campaign’s call upon you and your government to take the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the CEDAW to announce and to take urgent measures to:

• Ratify without reservations, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, CEDAW, and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW

• Bring national legislation in conformity with the provisions of international and regional women’s human rights protection instruments, by abolishing discriminatory laws and adopting laws to protect women’s human rights

• Put in place all necessary measures to ensure the effective application of these laws.

We urge you to heed our call to action and take concrete steps to end the persistent and widespread discrimination and violence against women across Africa.

Yours sincerely,

Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Literature Prize Laureate, 1991
Wole Soyinka, Nobel Literature Prize Laureate, 1986
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2003
Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Maryse Conde, Writer
Soyata Maiga, Special Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women
Reine Alapini Gansou, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR)
Yakin Erturk, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women
Angela Melo
Pierre Sane

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The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign. The dates, from November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women until December 10, International Human Rights Day, were chosen in order to emphasize that acts of violence against women are violations of women's fundamental human rights. The 16 Days Campaign has been used as a mobilization opportunity by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women.

On this occasion, our focal point in Senegal, SWAA ( Society for Women and Aids in Africa ), was selected for the UNIFEM ( United Nations Development Fund for Women ) project, to organize a film projection on violence against women and girls at Keur Massar, followed by consultations proposed by Mrs Coumba Fary Diouf, active member of SWAA and director of the film, at which she answered questions from the public.

The event underlined that gender violence is one of the most widespread violations of the fundamental human rights of women.

Open Letter from the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition
to the Ambassador of Sweden

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1 September 2009

Your Excellency,

We are writing to you as members of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition to urge the EU Mission in Sudan to continue its support for the trial of Ms. Lubna Ahmed Al Hussein who was arrested along with twelve other girls and women at the Um Kulthoum restaurant in the Riyadh area, east of Khartoum, on 3 July and later, sentenced to a public flogging and a fine under Article 152 of the Sudanese Penal Code of 1991.

We greatly welcome the attendance by representatives of EU missions at the two hearings held to date. We would like to encourage continued EU intervention, particularly from your office in Sudan, on behalf of Ms. Hussein. Considering that she refused Presidential pardon and chose to stand trial even though she could have benefited from immunity from her UN staff position, Ms. Hussein is a defender of women’s rights entitled to all forms of assistance provided for under the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.

Ms. Hussein is not just a victim of discrimination against women, but a woman human rights defender asserting her rights. Ignoring real risks of being punished and stigmatized, Ms. Hussein is using the court to press for the repeal of gender discriminatory laws such as imposed dress codes on women. She is tackling a manifestation of discrimination that is too rarely questioned effectively, yet affecting the lives of women in Sudan everyday. The presence by many women who attended the recent hearings of Ms. Hussein, many of whom wore trousers in solidarity with her and in opposition to the law, signify that this case is a broader struggle of the Sudanese women to challenge oppressive laws in their country.

As a Coalition, we join Ms. Hussein and many other Sudanese activists in demanding that the Sudanese government repeal Article 152 because it is in violation of fundamental human rights as enshrined in international law, as well as in breach of the Bill of Rights in the Sudanese Interim Constitution 2005. We also call for a halt to the court proceedings under Article 58 of the Sudanese Criminal Proceeding Act that gives the Minister of Justice the authority to stop the trial.

We expect that EU Missions will be able to show their support at Ms. Hussein’s next scheduled hearing on 7 September. This will be important to ensure impartial judicial proceedings and to acknowledge that Ms. Hussein’s confrontation of the discriminatory provisions in the legal system is a legitimate exercise of her human rights. The presence of EU member states could also prevent any attempts to further curtail the rights of those arrested or involved in this case.

The recently updated version of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders maintained that EU Missions should also look into “violations against women human rights defenders and the political, legal, economic and social contexts enabling the persistence of such abuse”. Therefore, we would greatly encourage EU Mission staff in Sudan to maintain contact and ensure support and protection for women human rights defenders, particularly those working on marginalised or ‘unpopular’ issues. Other concrete suggestions are provided in the attached Gender-Specific Recommendations for EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders drafted by the members of the Coalition.

As lead representative of the European Union in Sudan, we expect your leadership in sustaining the support of the EU Mission to Ms. Hussein and all other women and human rights defenders in the country.

Press Statement

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31 July 2009 – On the occasion of African Women's Day, the Campaign Coalition, composed of over one hundred organisations across the continent, supported by Nobel Peace Prize Winners, Desmond Tutu and Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Literature Prize Winners, Wole Soyinka and Nadine Gordimer, and numerous artists (including Youssou N'Dour, Angélique Kidjo and Tiken Jah Fakoly...), renew their appeal to national authorities to ratify international and regional women's rights protection instruments and respect them in law and practice. The organisations of the campaign will organise conferences, demonstrations, radio programmes etc. to raise public awareness and convey the message of the Campaign.

This day is also an occasion to evaluate progress made since the launch of the campaign « Africa for women's rights » at the outset of 2009.

RATIFY! The coalition of the campaign welcomes the ratification by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in February and by Cameroon in May 2009 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

« While these commitments represent important steps for women's rights, they are not enough. We call for ratification to be followed rapidly by reform of laws and policies in these two countries where women's human rights continue to be massively violated, » underlined the Campaign Steering Committee.

RESPECT! Concrete and lasting respect for women's rights requires the amendment of the legal framework and the Campaign Coalition therefore strongly welcomes the adoption of new laws aimed at the promotion and protection of women's rights, such as the law on quotas adopted in Burkina Faso in April which requires a minimum representation of 30% of each sex on the local and parliamentary electoral lists.

« We recognise the long and hard battles fought by civil society in Burkina Faso to achieve this important result. We will remain at their sides, in solidarity, until parity is achieved! » declared the Campaign Steering Committee.

« Each sign of progress provides encouragement and strength to our movement, but we are more than aware of the work still to be done », concluded the Campaign Steering Committee. « On African Women's Day, in the name of all the organisations supporting the Campaign across the continent, we call upon all national authorities to take this symbolic occasion to adopt concrete reforms in favour of equality and full respect for women's human rights ».

Press contact: Karine Appy 00 33.1.43.55.14.12/25.18