New Tool for Combating Gender-Based Violence
[2/12/08]
Gender-based violence violates women's human rights and poses a serious threat to public health in sub-Saharan Africa, just as it does in the rest of the world. Governments are legally obligated to address the problem through a range of measures, including legislation. A new publication, Gender-based Violence Laws in Sub-Saharan Africa, can be a useful tool both for government officials and advocates throughout the region who are seeking effective measures to eliminate violence against women.
With a specific focus on rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence, the report documents examples of legislation in sub-Saharan Africa designed to combat gender-based violence and evaluates how law can effectively address the challenges associated with violence against women. It provides an overview of the widespread prohibitions on gender-based violence in international and regional instruments, and examines constitutional and legislative provisions of selected sub-Saharan states. Gender-based Violence Laws in Sub-Saharan Africa also highlights general considerations to be taken into account in drafting and implementing such legislation and features good and best practices embraced by states that are prerequisites to properly implementing gender-based violence legislation.
This publication was prepared for the Committee on African Affairs of the New York City Bar in collaboration with the Center for Reproductive Rights, as part of a pro bono project coordinated by the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.
Click here to read Gender-based Violence Laws in Sub-Saharan Africa > >
New Report produced by the Center and FIDA!
[7/3/07]
Providing women with affordable, accessible, and safe health services is a key obligation of the government of Kenya. However, as a new report produced by the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Federation of Women Lawyers—Kenya vividly illustrates, Kenya’s health care sector suffers from systemic and widespread problems that deny women high quality family planning and maternal health care.
Through interviews with women, health care providers, and government officials, Failure to Deliver: Violations of Women's Human Rights in Kenyan Health Facilities documents a wide range of violations of women's fundamental human rights. Findings include physical and verbal abuse of women seeking maternity services, detention of women and their babies for unpaid medical bills, and staff and equipment shortages that impair the ability to provide good care.
Very few formal channels exist to provide redress for the serious human rights violations taking place in both public and private health care facilities throughout Kenya. This report throws into sharp relief the need to remedy the rights violations that women in Kenya have endured, and to implement systematic changes to ensure that women's rights are protected when they seek reproductive health care.
Center Promotes Reproductive Rights at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
[6/13/07]
This May, the Center made its first submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights since gaining observer status in December 2006. In collaboration with our partner, the Federation of Women Lawyers–Kenya, the Center submitted a shadow letter and made an oral statement to the Commission on reproductive rights in Kenya. Elisa Slattery, the Center’s legal adviser for the Africa program, also participated in a pre-session Reproductive Health Day, leading a reproductive health panel focused on making the rights contained in the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa a reality.
One outcome of these pre-session activities was the Commission’s adoption of a resolution on reproductive health and rights introduced by Angela Melo, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa. The resolution reaffirms the right to abortion in accordance with the protocol, and calls on states to take all necessary measures to stop the practice of female genital mutilation and reduce maternal mortality.
Kenya Must Strengthen and Protect Girls' Reproductive Health and Rights, UN Body Says
March 2007 -- In its review of Kenya's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued recommendations on several of the key issues highlighted in a December 2006 shadow letter submitted by the Center and the Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya.
In its Concluding Observations, the Committee called on the Kenyan government for the following:
- Improved access to sex education and reproductive health services to address rising rates of HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality among adolescent girls.
- Better funding for comprehensive sex education for youth that promotes contraceptive use and includes confidential counseling and testing.
- Free, adequate health and social services for all pregnant women.
- Awareness-raising campaigns that strengthen and enforce the prohibition of harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and early marriage.
The Committee also noted that the criminalization of abortion in cases of rape and incest—and the difficulties pregnant schoolgirls have in continuing their education—contribute to maternal deaths among adolescent girls. The Center commends the Committee for its strong recommendations; their implementation would significantly improve the lives of girls in Kenya.
CENTER GRANTED OBSERVER STATUS BEFORE THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS
December 12, 2006 -- Last month, the Center was granted observer status before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Commission is a regional human rights mechanism charged with promoting and protecting human rights throughout the African continent and with monitoring compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its protocols, including the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa which provides broad protections for reproductive rights. Observer status provides us with an opportunity to engage more closely with the Commission on reproductive rights issues through such activities as attending and participating in sessions of the Commission, submitting shadow reports and other information, and having greater access to Commission documents. Our application was considered at the Commission’s 40th session, which took place from November 15-29 in Gambia.
June 16 is Day of the African Child
This year’s theme focuses on children’s right to protection from violence. In a statement commemorating the day, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission drew attention to the negative physical, psychological, and social effects of female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls and women and called on member states to end the practice. The Chairperson noted that both the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa strongly condemn harmful traditional and cultural practices, and he called for member states to ratify the Charter and Protocol and incorporate them into national laws. The statement also emphasized the need to implement laws and mobilize groups throughout society to effectively eliminate FGM.
A recent World Health Organization study of more than 28,000 women in six African countries demonstrates how FGM can harm the health of women and their newborns. The study, conducted between 2001 and 2003, reports significant increases in maternal and infant death rates during childbirth among women who had undergone FGM.
Recent and Important Publications:
See also:
The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: An Instrument for Advancing Reproductive and Sexual Rights
In 2003, the African Union adopted a Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa to supplement the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Protocol, which entered into force in November 2005, provides broad protection for African women’s human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights. The Center's new briefing paper explains how the Protocol can be used to protect and enforce reproductive rights in Africa.
Legal Grounds: Reproductive and Sexual Rights in African Commonwealth Courts
Read the report online (PDF)
To order, visit our online bookstore
Reproductive and sexual rights, which are guaranteed in international and regional human rights treaties, mean nothing if they are not recognized and enforced by national-level courts. Legal Grounds: Sexual and Reproductive Rights in African Commonwealth Courts is an attempt to provide much-needed information about decisions and gender-relevant jurisprudence of national courts throughout African Commonwealth countries. It offers a crucial starting point for women’s rights advocates who are seeking to further develop their litigation and grassroots strategies.
Read former Center for Reproductive Rights employee Patty Skuster's article Advocacy in Whispers:
The Impact of the USAID Global Gag Rule
Upon Free Speech and Free Association in
the Context of Abortion Law Reform in
Three East African Countries (PDF)
State of Denial: Adolescent Reproductive Rights in Zimbabwe
This recently released report examines the human rights violations that arise when adolescents are denied access to life-saving information and services on contraception and STI prevention.
Regional reports:
Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Rights—Anglophone Africa
Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Rights— Anglophone Africa 2001 Progress Report
Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Rights—Francophone Africa
These reports profile the status of reproductive rights in fourteen African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
Also read Claiming Our Rights: Surviving Pregnancy and Childbirth in Mali
See a list of
Regional Partner Organizations.
Regional Partner Organizations
