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Southern
Africa: NGOs demand that SADC leaders prove their commitment to
gender equality
Genderlinks
January 31, 2008
http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article.php?a_id=895
NGOs meeting
in Johannesburg have challenged leaders of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) to put their money where their mouths
are by adopting a binding protocol for promoting gender equality
at their August summit.
In a statement following a three day strategy meeting, members of
the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance[1]
commended the recent move by senior officials responsible for gender
to strengthen the draft SADC Protocol on Gender and Development
that was watered down and then deferred at the 2007 Heads of State
summit in Lusaka .
The NGOs have, however, raised a number of key areas that they believe
are crucial for achieving gender equality that are still missing
from the current draft. The Alliance called on 's President
Thabo Mbeki, who will be hosting the 2008 summit and has a progressive
track record on gender issues, to add his political weight to ensuring
that these gaps are addressed.
The draft Protocol
is one of the most ambitious projects by governments of SADC to
bring together all existing international and regional commitments
for achieving gender equality and enhance these through measurable
targets in all sectors.
In the making
since 2005, the Protocol has gone through seven different drafts,
and faced major resistance ahead of the 2007 summit, with key sections
removed or whittled down by senior officials from finance and trade-related
ministries. Following the instruction from leaders that there be
"further consultation" on the protocol, senior officials
responsible for gender met in Livingstone in December to try to
salvage what they could of the original draft, while taking note
of concerns that it was too long and prescriptive.
While the Lusaka
draft reduced the targets to be met by 2015 from 24 to 14, the Livingstone
draft has 19 targets. Sections on health, HIV and AIDS and the media
that had been cross referenced with existing SADC Protocols that
make little or no reference to gender have been reinstated, albeit
in abbreviated form. The language is considerably strengthened,
and key issues such as maternity and paternity leave reinstated.
The Alliance
agreed, however, that there are eight areas that have been dropped
in the current draft of the Protocol around which lobbying efforts
will be focused between now and the August summit in . The key demands
of the consortium are that:
- The Protocol
state commitments using obligatory language like "ensure"
instead of "endeavour"
- The Protocol
state explicitly that where there are contradictions between customary
law and Constitutional provisions for gender equality the latter
is given precedence
- The rights
of socially excluded and vulnerable groups be recognised and protected
- Marital rape,
which is recognised in the 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and
Development that preceded the Protocol, and is recognised in the
laws of six SADC countries, should be reinstated in the definition
of gender violence. This is all the more urgent in a region where
an alarmingly high proportion of women newly infected with HIV
are home makers whose partners have been unfaithful
- The recognition
of the rights of cohabiting couples to prevent the denial and
loss of property and other rights in the event of death or other
circumstances that nullify the union. Cohabitation is a fact in
SADC countries, and lack of rights in these unions is causing
hardship, particularly for women and children
- Strengthening
of the gender dimensions of HIV and AIDS, such as female controlled
methods of contraception and sexual rights which, if fully promoted,
can significantly contribute to halting and reversing the pandemic
by 2015 in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
- Strengthening
of the provisions on education, which in the amended form have
lost their specificity on early childhood development, career
planning, vocational training and effective policies in addressing
school girl pregnancies
- Reinstating
of provisions in the otherwise strong section on women's
economic empowerment on access by women to government and other
state controlled procurement opportunities
- The addition
of specific targets for mainstreaming gender in the media, and
media practise.
The Alliance
roadmap involves intensive lobbying and advocacy in-country and
at a regional level, including offering technical support where
this may be required through to the August summit, where it plans
to hold a parallel civil society forum and launch a high profile
campaign for the adoption of a strong Gender Protocol.
For more information contact Pamela Mhlanga on: 011 622 2877 or
dedirector@genderlinks.org.za
Notes
[1] The SADC Gender Protocol Alliance comprises the Botswana Council
of NGOs (BOCONGO); Federation
of African Media Women (FAMW) - SADC; Gender Links (GL);
Gender and Media Southern Africa Network (GEMSA); Justice and Peace
(Lesotho); Malawi Council of Churches; Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA); NGO Gender Coordination Network
Malawi; SAFAIDS;
Society for Women and AIDS in Africa Zambia (SWAAZ); Women in Law
and Development in Africa (WILDAF); Women in Law in Southern Africa
(WLSA); Women, Land and Water Rights Southern Africa (WLWRSA); Women
in Politics Caucus Botswana; Women's Leadership Centre Namibia;
Young Women's Christian Association Botswana (YWCA); Zimbabwe
Women's Resource Centre (ZWRCN).
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