Women, Peace and Security Initiatives: Africa

In-country | International

SECOND WSIS AFRICA REGIONAL PREPARATORY CONFERENCE
UNECA
2-4 February 2005
The Second African Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be held from 2 to 4 February 2005 in Accra, Ghana. Getting gender issues and concerns onto the agenda of the second WSIS to be held in Tunis in 2005 is of great importance and a gender caucus is planned for this regional preparatory conference. The conference theme, Access - Africa's key to an inclusive Information Society, be preceded by pre-Conference workshops from 28 January to 1 February 2005. The Government of the Republic of Ghana is hosting this event under the high patronage of President John Kufour in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). For more information go to http://www.uneca.org/aisi/accra2005/

OXFAM PUBLIC DIALOGUE ON THE AFRICAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS PROTOCOL
OXFAM
30 November 2004
On 30 November 2004, to mark the occasion of World AIDS Day and its intersection with the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, Oxfam Great Britain facilitated a Public Dialogue on the African Union Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, at our offices in Pretoria. Given the fact that the themes respectively are: Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS – ‘Have you heard me today?’ and For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World: No More Violence - the focus of the event was on Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS within the framework of the Women’s Protocol.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=2595

Petition Campaign – Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
Pambazuka News/ Fahamu / BBC
July 2004
On July 11 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, marking a significant step forward in promoting the rights of women within Africa. But almost a year after its adoption, only one member state of the AU, The Comoros, has signed and ratified the Protocol. Since then, Libya and Rwanda have joined this list, but twenty-six other member states have signed but are yet to ratify it as at May 12, 2004. This calls for 14 more countries to ratify in order for it to come into force. Oxfam GB, Equality Now, FEMNET, CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and FAHAMU have started a campaign targeting 14 countries that have already signed with the aim of lobbying them to ratify. A petition has been drafted that will be presented to the AU Summit in July 2004. You can sign the petition online here, or sign up by SMS (text messaging on your mobile phone) by sending a message to: +27832933934, with the word ‘petition’ and your name in the message. You will only be charged the cost set by your network provider for sending an international SMS. To read the press releases regarding this campaign, please click here for English and French. To join a discussion on the BBC News website as to whether African leaders are doing enough for women's rights, please click here. A selection of your views will be broadcast on BBC Focus on Africa at 1700 GMT on Saturday 31 July 2004.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Namibia has become the fourth country to ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, joining the Comoros, Libya and Rwanda. Watch out for more details on Namibia’s ratification in next week’s Pambazuka News. Fifteen ratifications are needed before the protocol enters into force. You can help speed up the ratification process by signing a petition.

Bride price: an insult to women, a burden to men?
BBC Online Discussion
August 2004
The BBC's Africa Live programme looks at an age old tradition that is practised by many communities across the world - bride price. In Africa, it is still practised extensively and known as "lobola" in the southern parts of the continent, "mahari" in east Africa or "wine-carrying" among tribes in west Africa. Traditionally, the prospective husband is expected to give a certain amount of money and goods, including cattle, goats, blankets or cowrie shells before a marriage is agreed. Bride price or dowry was revered as a symbol of sincerity and good faith that brought together the bride's and groom's families. Click here to discuss its modern day role and repercussions, via an online forum.

16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence – WOMANKIND Grants
WOMANKIND and the African Women’s Development Fund
November 25 – December 10, 2004
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL, see Global Initiatives) in 1991. A central and ongoing priority for WOMANKIND Worldwide is working towards the elimination of violence against women, both nationally within the UK and internationally through partnerships with women’s groups across the world. Since 2000, we have provided annual funding and support for a number of women’s groups across Africa to participate in the 16 Days of Activism. In 2004, WOMANKIND will again collaborate with the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) to jointly provide small grants to African women’s organisations working to eliminate violence against women. Guidelines and applications are available in French, Spanish and English. For more details, please view their website.

Conference: "Building Bridges: New Partnership for Transformational Leadership"
WIELD 27-30 September
An international leadership conference to promote women and girls' inclusion and active participation in leadership in Africa and the African Diaspora will be held in September 27-30 in Cape Town, South Africa. WIELD is issuing a call for papers to be presented at the conference. These should be sent to WIELD Program Coordinator, Women's Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE), P.O. Box CT 5604, Cantonments, Accra, Ghana. E-mail: awlc2004@yahoo.com. For more information, please click here.

Lecture Series
African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA)
November 2004
AWLA is a non-governmental non-sectarian, professional body working to enhance the status of women and children in Africa. The organization was set up to lobby for gender equality through legislative reform and attitudinal change and to encourage, strengthen and promote networking among African women lawyers. The realization of the need to create a group of african women lawyers to address issues affecting women and children on the continent specifically, and to present a uniform voice to articulate those issues at the United Nations and at other international fora crystallized after a meeting of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) held in Accra, Ghana in 1996. AWLA has several activities earmarked for the year, the highlight being the Annual Lecture series of the organization. The maiden lecture is to hold in November 2004, the proposed theme is "the role of women in the legal profession in Nigeria; challenges and prospects". To read more about this organization and their activities, please click here.

Armed Groups Working Paper Series
The Armed Groups Project
The Armed Groups Project is engaged in ongoing policy-relevant research about the instruments available to the international community to curb human rights and humanitarian violations committed by armed groups. The Armed Groups Project welcomes submissions for its new Armed Groups Working Paper Series. Works should address the challenges armed groups pose for policy makers and practitioners, and/or provide new accounts of an armed group's structure, activities or motivations. Click here to view their website.

Petition on the Ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
Signatures to be presented at the African Union Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa in July 2004
At the African Union meeting in Maputo in July 2003, the AU adopted the "Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa". The Protocol offers significant potential to guarantee the rights of women. But in order to come into force it needs to be ratified by at least 15 countries and by June 2, only one country (the Comoros) had ratified it. In the coming weeks leading up to the 2004 AU summit in July, an alliance of Fahamu, Credo for Freedom of Expression & Associated Rights, Equality Now, the African Women's Development and Communication Network (Femnet) and Oxfam will be collecting signatures for the following petition to be presented at the African Union Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa in July 2004.

Strengthening Women's Voices Project
African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
The never-ending conflicts, decades of war, and now the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa are enough reasons for African women to be part of the decision-making process in their various countries. Since women are the most vulnerable and suffer most during these crises, it is only logical that they participate actively in debating issues and making decisions affecting them. Since the main obstacle to women’s political participation is the lack of economic resources, there is the need to harness all resources available to make women’s political participation possible. AWDF raises funds worldwide for the political participation of African women through the Strengthening Women’s Voices Project. This is an opportunity for us all to help more African women to get into leadership positions where their voices can be heard. Your donation can be in cash or kind, no amount is too small. For further information on how to make a donation, please contact: African Women’s Development Fund, Aviation House, Aviation Road, PMB CT89 Cantonments, Accra, Ghana. Tel: +233 21 780477 Fax: +233 21 782 502 Email: awdf@awdf.org, or visit the website here.

African Woman Food Farmer Initiative (AWFFI)
2004
As of the end of September 2003, AWFFI has cumulatively lent almost 39,000 loans for over $1.7 million to groups of women farmers in the seven countries of Africa since the inception of the program in 2000. The seven countries are Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso and Ghana in West Africa, and in Uganda, Malawi and Mozambique in East and Southern Africa. The average loan is about $40 for each woman in the AWFFI program. In 2003 alone (as of the end of September), about 3,400 women received credit for over $325,000. The long-term goal of AWFFI is to ensure that rural farmer women in Africa have access to affordable credit on a sustainable basis. In order to accomplish this goal, AWFFI plans to create farmer women-owned and managed rural banks in each Epicenter that will be formally recognized by the government. Click Here for more information on this project.

Women, Property Rights and Development
2004
Millions of women around the world suffer abuses of their equal rights to own, inherit, manage, and dispose of property. These violations are degrading, discriminatory, and sometimes deadly. After their property rights are violated, many women end up impoverished, struggling to meet their families’ basic needs, living in decaying shacks in dangerous slums, and vulnerable to violence and disease—including HIV/AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa, violations of women’s property rights are severe and pervasive. The tragedy of these violations is magnified by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, where the epidemic is raging and where 58 percent of those infected with HIV are women. In many African countries, women are excluded from inheriting, evicted from their lands and homes by in-laws, stripped of their possessions, and forced to engage in risky sexual practices in order to keep their property—all because they are women. Click Here for more information on Women and Property rights or Take Action in support of the Human Right's Watch campaign.

Pan-African Women’s Day Celebration
September 25, 2003
Country members of the Africa Union gathered to celebrate the Pan-African Women’s Day in the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa on September 25, 2003. The theme was “Gender Mainstreaming in the African Union- A whole New Way of Doing Things”. To read the presentations of the one-day session Click Here. For more information visit the African Union.

Kampala Declaration: Prevent Gender-based Violence in Africa
The Kampala Declaration was written and endoresed by representatives of NGOs, women's groups, cities, municipalities and United Nations agencies from 10 countries in the Horn, Eastern and Southern Africa. It came out of a gathering in Kampala, Uganda, in September 2003, where there was regional dialogue on preventing gender-based violence. Organized by Raising Voices and UN-HABITAT's Safer Cities Programme, they now have an online petition that calls for action to prevent and eradicate gender-based violence in Africa. Click here to read it , and send an email to info@raisingvoices.org to sign it.

First Regional Dialogue, Preventing Gender-based Violence: Sharing Experiences, Breaking New Ground
September, 2003
Over 30 leaders from non-governmental organizations and local authorities from the Horn, East and Southern Africa convened in Kampala, Uganda for the first Regional Dialogue, Preventing Gender-based Violence: Sharing Experiences, Breaking New Ground. Organized by Raising Voices and UN-HABITAT's Safer Cities Programme, the First Regional Dialogue launched the Kampala Declaration calling civil society, local authorities, UN agencies, governments and funding agencies to increase attention, investment and action on preventing gender-based violence in Africa. Support the initiative in preventing gender-based violence by signing the Kampala Declaration. To sign the Kampala Declaration Click Here. For more information visit Raising Voices.

NGO Forum World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
August 29, 2001
Women from Africa hold a regional meeting at the Gender Commission meeting held on August 29 2001 during the NGO Forum to the World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. The women observed that colonialism is a fundamental cause of racism that exists via hierarchies, and that they are systematically devalued and placed at the bottom of this hierarchy. This is manifested in racial and ethnic intolerance in armed conflict, resulting in refugees and internally displaced persons, the majority of who are women and children. They urged to implement the outcomes of the WCAR conference and other international conventions and agreements protecting women from multiple forms of discrimination. In particular, the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. To read the newsletter Click Here. For more information visit African Women’s Development and Communication Network.

Men to Men Initiative
2001
FEMNET launched the Men to Men Initiative in 2001, to mark the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Violence on Women. The FEMNET contribution to the campaign targeted men, and marked the beginning of a partnership to promote and increase male involvement and action to combat gender based violence at the Africa regional level. To read the latest newsletter with information about the Men to Men Initiative Click Here. For more information visit African Women's Development and Communications Network.

AMANITARE-The African Partnership for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Girls and Women
1999
AMINATARE is a ten-year Pan-African initiative launched in 1999 by the Research, Action and Information Network for the Bodily Integrity of Women (RAINBO), that intends to increase awareness about the rights of girls and women to freedom from sexual violence, to services that protect them from death and disability as a result of pregnancy and childbirth and to information and choices regarding decisions about their sexuality and fertility. The first AMANITARE workshop, entitled "Free Africa from Violence Against Women", was held in The Gambia from June 11 to 15, 2001. A second workshop, entitled "The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Young Women and Girls", was held in Nigeria from February 4 to 8, 2002. For more information visit AMINATARE.