Women’s rights in Africa
THE UN human rights office has launched a joint report with the AU and UN Women detailing the progress and challenges to women’s struggle for human rights in Africa, as the world marked International Women’s Day yesterday.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has warned that the women’s movement around the world faces a backlash that could hurt both men and women.
“We need to be alert – the advances of the last few decades were fragile and should nowhere be taken for granted,” he said.
It was “extremely troubling” to see recent roll-back of fundamental legislation in many parts of the world.
These were “underpinned by the renewed obsession with controlling and limiting women’s decisions over their bodies and lives, and by views that a woman’s role should be essentially restricted to reproduction and the family”.
Zeid pointed to recent legislation in Bangladesh, Burundi and the Russian Federation, which weakened women’s rights to fight against child marriage, marital rape and domestic violence respectively.
There was also “fierce resistance” in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to political and civil society efforts to open access to sexual and reproductive rights.
“With the world’s young population concentrated in developing nations, retrogressive measures denying women and girls access to sexual and reproductive health services will have a devastating effect,” Zeid said, noting more maternal deaths, more unintended pregnancies, fewer girls finishing school and the economic impact of failing to fully include women in the workforce.
Zeid praised women’s movements in countries such as Argentina, Poland and Saudi Arabia, where women and men together took to the streets to demand change. But he warned against complacency. “It is time to come together to protect the important gains of the past and maintain a positive momentum,” he said.
In Africa, women continue to be denied full enjoyment of their rights in every country, according to a new report released yesterday entitled “Women’s Rights in Africa”.
Statistics show that some African countries have no legal protection for women against domestic violence, being forced to undergo female genital mutilation, and being forced to marry while still children.
According to the report, in Africa – as around the globe – when women exercise their rights to access to education, skills, and jobs, there is a surge in prosperity and positive health outcomes, with greater freedom and well-being, not only of women but of the whole society.