The pioneers of the International Women’s Day (IWD) in the late 19th century and early 20th century were ordinary women seeking rights that are today viewed as ordinary. In March 1917, previously downtrodden women gathering strength and passion swept through what is now Leningrad over several days in food riots, political strikes and demonstrations in a labour dispute that marked the most memorable International Women’s Day.
International Women's Day has today assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. However few of the pioneers would celebrate the slow progress made in the protection and promotion of the rights of women since 1917. Better working conditions, the right to vote and hold public office, the right to nondiscrimination and the fight against poverty remain of concern to women today - as they were then.
The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand for women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day has become a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.
It is interesting to note that International Women’s Day this year fell at a time when the world gathered in New York at the 49th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to review the progress made 10 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing China in 1995. This review, also known as the Beijing+10, presented an excellent basis for reflecting on the position of women even as we celebrated this noble day.
We recall that at the end of the Beijing Conference, as was the case with the preceding conferences in Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985, governments present produced a policy document known as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) which was a statement of problems and issues.
The Platform identified 12 critical areas of concern that needed to be addressed to enable women to fully enjoy their rights. The governments committed to take measures aimed at addressing these concerns with a view to empowering women and achieving equality, development and peace. The 12 critical areas of concern are women and poverty, women in education and training, women and health, women and violence, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment and the girl child.
An audit of the performance of governments in removing the inadequacies raised in the BPFA reveals that very little, if anything at all, has been done due largely to a general lack of political will compounded by patriarchal overtones that make policy or legislative reform extremely difficult even in the rare cases where political will exists. This is rather unfortunate given that the principles of equality and nondiscrimination are enshrined in a majority of the world’s Constitutions.
The above situation is compounded further in the African context by retrogressive cultural practices and traditions, poverty and armed conflicts, the former two of which influence, amongst other things, the legislative processes and serve to accentuate the discrimination that is visited upon women. Examples of harmful traditional practices include virginity testing, widow inheritance, sexual slavery and female genital mutilation.
Patriarchy has been perfected over the years such that even where discriminatory laws and policies are removed, women are unable to immediately enjoy the benefits of such change due to societal pressures that demand that the woman remains in a position inferior to the man. Take the case of free primary education for instance. Several countries have made it possible for children to access free education at primary or elementary level without discrimination on the basis of sex. Yet many girls drop out after the first few years mainly due to overload of domestic chores such as fetching water and firewood in addition to other work. Unless therefore the government addresses the basic issues of poverty such as provision of shelter, potable water and security from a gender perspective the results of the costly legislative reform processes will not be felt in a long time.
The recently published stories of sexual abuse of women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo by UN Peacekeepers speaks volumes not only of the vulnerability of women in conflict situations but in society in general. Those to whom they turned for protection instead turned on them for the simple reason that they were women. The plight of women in the DRC rekindles the memories of the hundreds of women in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda who suffered unspeakable sexual atrocities in conflicts that they neither understood the origins of nor played a part in.
Is there then any hope at all for the African woman? The various continental processes currently underway under the auspices of the African Union offer some amount of respite for the women of the continent. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights provides for non-discrimination in Article 2 and equality in Article 3. At Article 18 the Charter calls on all states to ensure the elimination of discrimination against women and to ensure the protection of the rights of women and children in accordance with international standards.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted to supplement the Charter with regard to the rights of women. The Protocol remains by far one of the best initiatives undertaken by African leaders to bring an end to discriminatory and harmful practices against women. It addresses issues of non-discrimination as they relate to civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to development and peace.
This progressive Protocol is yet to come into force. Ten countries have ratified the Protocol to date, these being the Comoros, Libya, Rwanda, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Mali and Djibouti. Thirty-six other countries have signed, of which three are engaged in finalizing the ratification procedures at a national level. As we celebrate the IWD we continue to urge member states of the African Union to urgently ratify this Protocol to enable women to enjoy their rights. We also urge governments to repeal laws that discriminate against women so that these conform to their Constitutions.
And yes, we dare celebrate the ordinary women who on the day, as their counterparts did in 1917 and before, stand against the ordinary discriminatory practices so as to make nondiscrimination an ordinary way of life. In so doing they became extraordinary. We celebrate the African woman who, unlike the man, toils day and night amidst grinding poverty on the continent and faces up to harsh cultural, traditional and societal prejudices yet still manages to achieve much.
In the past year the most extraordinary of these ordinary African women that we must name as we celebrate is Professor Wangari Muta Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace. At the ongoing CSW Professor Maathai dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to all women and called on developing countries to cancel debts owed by Third World Countries, noting that servicing debts continued to impoverish the already poor countries. She further noted that this amounted to punishing poor countries and women. Reflecting on the slow progress made since the agenda on issues affecting women was set thirty years ago, the Nobel Laureate said that the burden of debt under which the continent was submerged made it impossible for governments to address pertinent issues of basic provision affecting women already highlighted in the foregoing. We can only add our voice to her call.
* Caroline Ageng’o is Programme Officer for Equality Now, Africa Regional Office, Nairobi
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