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SMILE, WOMAN OF AFRICA, SMILE!
A. N. Kithaka
This week holds two important events for African women. The 25th of
November marks the start of the 16 Days of Gender Activism Against
Violence, an international campaign meant to raise awareness about
gender violence, strengthen the work of local organisations and
demonstrate the solidarity of women around the world. Incorporating the
International Day Against Violence Against Women (November 25th) and
International Human Rights Day (December 10), the goal of the campaign
is to link violence against women to the fact that it is a human rights
violation. November 25 is also especially important for African women,
as it is the day that the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
comes into force. Having been ratified by the requisite 15 African
countries, this extremely important and progressive treaty has the
potential to liberate and empower all African women to know and utilise
their rights. That’s why A.N. Kithaka, in the article below, makes an
eloquent plea for Kenya to ratify the protocol. Extolling the advantages
that the Protocol will have on African countries, Kithaka argues that
the work done by numerous groups around the globe is imperative to
gender rights, and to leaving behind violence against women as a things
of the past . below Kithaka’s article are a list of resources on 16
days and the Protocol - suggested websites, further reading, blogs and
events.
Women of Africa, we have cause to celebrate; the long awaited
ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of the African Woman by the
requisite 15 member states has just been announced. The Protocol will
come to force soon (November 25). Those states that have deposited their
instruments of ratification with the Executive Council will be at
liberty to incorporate its provision into their domestic laws.
It has been a long journey; a journey and a battle well fought by
national, regional and international lobby groups. Most of us were not
aware of this but we are glad that their collective and consistent
lobbying, cajoling and canvassing has finally born fruits. The Second
Summit of the African Heads of Governments and States sitting in Maputo,
Mozambique finally adopted the Protocol as a supplement to the African
Charter on Human and People’s Rights. The only rider was that it had
to be ratified by 15 states out of a possible 53 member states. The
fifteenth state to deposit its document of ratification with the
Executive Council did so on the 26th day of October, meaning that within
30 days from this date, the Protocol will come into force! It has been
correctly taunted as the Green Card that will usher us to a new era. It
not only guarantees us a wider spectrum of human rights specific to our
needs as the much oppressed and repressed creature of the old (and new!)
millennium, but also allows us to seek redress in the yet to be
constituted African Court of Human and Peoples Rights. Unfortunately,
Kenya is yet to ratify the protocol, perhaps due to the present national
preoccupation with the referendum. Nevertheless, it will not be an up
hill task to nudge the government towards the right direction - it
appears malleable.
The big question is, how soon will women in Kenya join the proud list of
those countries that have chosen to give their women an early Christmas
gift by ratifying the document? How long will the women in Kenya have to
camp on this renegade side of the Red Sea as they wait for the magic
word 'ratification' to part the raging waters and usher them to that
other side where gender discrimination, repulsive FGM, forced marriages
and widow inheritance, domestic and sexual violence, etc. are a thing of
the past? Not long, I hope.
We must join hands to lobby for this ratification at all costs. Only
then can we rise and say “Eureka!” Otherwise we may as well be
content to sit on this side for an eternity, as we watch our sisters
from Cape Verde, Mali, Malawi, Lesotho, Comoros, Libya, Namibia, Rwanda,
Nigeria, Djibouti, Mauritius, Senegal, South Africa, Benin, Togo and
Gambia take the first steps into the soggy sea bed to personal freedoms.
After ratification and domestication; we must move to the next important
stage: that of educating the masses on its benefits, without forgetting
to bring on-board our dear fathers, brothers, husbands and sons. Some of
the opposition being waged against the Wako Draft Constitution is
because it promises equal inheritance rights to women, especially
married women. One would think that the Draft is introducing new
concepts into our legal jurisprudence, yet the Succession Act has been
around since 1981!
Most women have refused to enforce their rights, even when assured that
the law is on their side. Others do not want the incessant fights over
meager family resources with hostile male relatives; visits to infamous
land offices make many cringe. They prefer to hide behind the mask of
traditions as they denounce their shares in favour of their brothers.
Men fear losing control over their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.
They subscribe to the primitive belief that the only way to subjugate
and subdue a woman is by denial of basic rights and freedoms; and
application of gender-specific violence; rape and physical assault being
the most popular today. In our mother's days, denial to basic and
secondary education was the weapon of choice, and being forced to resign
from paying jobs in favor of 'staying-at-home – to-take-care-of-the-children'
edicts. Even today's educated man wants to confine his woman to that
perpetually smoky room called the kitchen (after work, that is!).
Dissenters are deserted, attacked, maimed and killed with impunity.
Those lucky enough to escape and fend for themselves are given cold
treatment by a society that brands them prostitutes, husband grabbers
and social failures. Any property they acquire in their single state
will be grabbed or inherited by their estranged husbands, brothers,
uncles and fathers. Any children they leave behind, especially girl
children, are mistreated, forced to leave school and become house girls,
or married off to total strangers who profess kinship to their parents.
Sometimes they are shunted off to rural areas where they are forced to
undergo abhorrent traditional rites. Would it not be better for
governments to facilitate the fostering of such children so that they
can continue to live in the manner and style they were accustomed to
when their mothers were alive?
That is why advocacy groups must do more than just lobbying for adoption
of international legal instruments; they must help women from rural
areas apply them to improve their lots and those of their children.
Atieno from Ahero, Wanjiku from Waithaka, Kalekye from Katse and Naliaka
from Narok must be facilitated, both materially and intellectually, so
that she is aware of her basic human and women’ rights and how these
can be enforced at the national, regional and international courts of
justice. Let us gang up and apply the shock therapy to disgorge men from
their entrenched prejudices; let us wean them from the present
retrogressive and chauvinistic mindset that has been passed from
generation to generation.
In his play, ‘Measure for Measure’, Shakespeare introduces a
character called Angelo. He is the law enforcer who brokers no- nonsense deals
when it comes to matters of justice. He refuses to temper justice with
mercy and holds that the law must be obeyed to the letter - at the
beginning of the play, anyway. What happens later is for the curious to
find out. He is famously quoted as pontificating that 'we must not make
a scarecrow of the law, setting it up to catch birds of prey till custom
finding it harmless makes it their perch and not their terror'.
Our advocacy skills and efforts must translate to visible changes in the
lives of our people; they must not remain mere 'open sesame' to donor
funds; let us canvass for enactment of laws, but let us not leave them
to be mere scarecrows that are set up to frighten birds of prey,
and…men!
* A. N. Kithaka is an Advocate in Kenya.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
Supporting organisations of the campaign for the ratification of the
Protocol on the Rights of Women
African Centre for Democracy And Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) www.acdhrs.org/
Akina Mama wa Afrika www.akinamama.org/
Association des Juristes Maliennes http://www.justicemali.org/ajm.htm
Cellule de Coordination sur les Pratiques Traditionelle Affectant la
Sante des Femmes et des Enfants
Coalition on Violence Against Women www.covaw.or.ke
ECOTERRA International http://www.ecoterra-international.org
Equality Now-Africa Regional Office http://www.equalitynow.org/english/index.html
FAHAMU http://www.fahamu.org
FAMEDEV-Inter-African Network For Women Media, Gender and Development
FEMNET - African Women's Development and Communication Network www.femnet.or.ke
Foundation for Community Development, Inter-African Committee on Harmful
Traditional Practices (IAC)
Oxfam GB http://www.oxfam.org.uk/
Sister Namibia
Union Nationale des Femmes de Djibouti
Voix de Femmes http://www.voixdefemmes.org/
University of Pretoria Center for Human Rights http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternatives
Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) http://www.wildaf.org/
Resources
16 Days of Activism Against Gender
Violence www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days/home.html
Peace Women http://peacewomen.org
Akina Mama wa Afrika http://www.akinamama.org/
Equality Now http://www.equalitynow.org/english/index.html
FEMNET http://femnet.or.ke
Feminist Africa http:/www.feministafrica.org
Blogs
Feminist African Sisters http://feministafricansisters.blogspot.com/
Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman http://madkenyanwoman.blogspot.com/
Black Looks http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks
Further Reading
Women Building Peace http://www.international-alert.org/publications/121.php
Trafficking in Women and Children in Africa http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/
African Experiences of Transnational Feminism www.feministafrica.org/2level.html
Pambazuka News Special Editions on the Protocol
Protocol on the Rights of Women in
Africa: A Pre-condition for Health and Food Security http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=190
The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Red, Yellow and Green
www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=213
Challenges of Domestication: The Protocol To The African Charter on
Human and People’s Rights on The Rights of Women in Africa www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=222
Pambazuka Profiles on the Protocol
Land Rights - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30397
Women and Sustainable Development - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30299
Women in Armed Conflict - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30122
Female Genital Mutilation - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30050
Trafficking in Women and Children - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29740
Female Refugees - http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29873
Events
Nigeria – Baobab Women http://www.baobabwomen.org/upcomingevents.html
South Africa – Women’s Net http://womensnet.org.za/16Days/calendar.shtml
Agenda in Durban, South Africa Contact editorial@agenda.org.za
Kenya – COVAW http://www.covaw.or.ke/
Ghana – Ark Foundation http://www.arkfoundationgh.org/news/home.htm
International Calendar http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days/kit05/calendar.html
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