Rising patriarchal resistance in Africa against gender equality and health rights
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Shobha Shukla - CNS
Contd from previous issue
The draft Charter provides no safeguards to ensure that prioritising family cohesion cannot override women's rights, children’s rights, bodily autonomy, or protection from abuse," said Sibongile Ndashe, Executive Director, Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA).
Sovereignty versus the individual
Sibongile Ndashe rightly points out that the draft Charter expands sovereignty to justify extensive government control over morality, health, education, sexuality and family life.
Agrees Famia Nkansa, Communications Lead, at Purposeful - a feminist hub rooted in Sierra Leone. "According to the draft Charter the woman is not the primary political actor. She is not even the survivor. The family and the government runs everything. And particularly in African continent where the family is very rarely a site of safety or a sight of protection or a site of nurturing and growth, but often times for women it is a site of violence, and a sight of shame."
For Nkansa, the draft Charter wants to reframe human rights protections as 'foreign impositions' rather than African aspirations. It is an attempt to substitute a frame from autonomy, equality, dignity, and bodily integrity to 'sovereignty', 'parental authority', 'tradition', and 'cultural preservation.'
Is the draft Charter a wolf in sheep's clothing?
Letlhogonolo Mok-goroane, South African legal practitioner, calls it a draft Charter in sheep's clothing, as it “...uses rights language to strip rights. It speaks of 'protecting the family' while removing protections from families that do not conform to its narrow definition. It speaks of African values while promoting values that were designed in Arizona and incubated in Washington DC."
Mokgoroane, who is a non-binary person, is distraught because "the draft charter defines gender as limited to male and female, erasing the existence of intersex and gender diverse persons. It defines family exclusively through heterosexual marriage and biological parenthood, excluding same-sex families, single parent families, gender diverse parents or gender diverse children. In the 'world' of the draft Charter, these people do not exist, and when the law says you do not exist, the consequences are not abstract."
"The draft Charter also rejects comprehensive sexuality education - the very education that evidence has shown leads to better sexual and reproductive health outcomes, lower rates of HIV transmission, lower rates of unintended pregnancies, and lower rates of gender-based violence. The draft Charter replaces evidence with ideology. It replaces public health with moralism and invokes sovereignty as a basis for non-compliance with international human rights obligation."
Mokgoroane contends that the African Inter-Parliamentary Conferences on Family, Sovereignty and Values that have developed this draft charter are supported, funded and shaped by US-based conservative organisations, like Family Watch International, which is an anti-LGBTI organisation that has been channelling resources into Africa to change laws and shift policies. Not surprisingly, "This is legislative capture dressed as deliberation. The draft Charter was incubated in conferences funded by US-based organisations whose presence has no mandate for many African people. (To be contd)
Contd from previous issue
The draft Charter provides no safeguards to ensure that prioritising family cohesion cannot override women's rights, children’s rights, bodily autonomy, or protection from abuse," said Sibongile Ndashe, Executive Director, Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA).
Sovereignty versus the individual
Sibongile Ndashe rightly points out that the draft Charter expands sovereignty to justify extensive government control over morality, health, education, sexuality and family life.
Agrees Famia Nkansa, Communications Lead, at Purposeful - a feminist hub rooted in Sierra Leone. "According to the draft Charter the woman is not the primary political actor. She is not even the survivor. The family and the government runs everything. And particularly in African continent where the family is very rarely a site of safety or a sight of protection or a site of nurturing and growth, but often times for women it is a site of violence, and a sight of shame."
For Nkansa, the draft Charter wants to reframe human rights protections as 'foreign impositions' rather than African aspirations. It is an attempt to substitute a frame from autonomy, equality, dignity, and bodily integrity to 'sovereignty', 'parental authority', 'tradition', and 'cultural preservation.'
Is the draft Charter a wolf in sheep's clothing?
Letlhogonolo Mok-goroane, South African legal practitioner, calls it a draft Charter in sheep's clothing, as it “...uses rights language to strip rights. It speaks of 'protecting the family' while removing protections from families that do not conform to its narrow definition. It speaks of African values while promoting values that were designed in Arizona and incubated in Washington DC."
Mokgoroane, who is a non-binary person, is distraught because "the draft charter defines gender as limited to male and female, erasing the existence of intersex and gender diverse persons. It defines family exclusively through heterosexual marriage and biological parenthood, excluding same-sex families, single parent families, gender diverse parents or gender diverse children. In the 'world' of the draft Charter, these people do not exist, and when the law says you do not exist, the consequences are not abstract."
"The draft Charter also rejects comprehensive sexuality education - the very education that evidence has shown leads to better sexual and reproductive health outcomes, lower rates of HIV transmission, lower rates of unintended pregnancies, and lower rates of gender-based violence. The draft Charter replaces evidence with ideology. It replaces public health with moralism and invokes sovereignty as a basis for non-compliance with international human rights obligation."
Mokgoroane contends that the African Inter-Parliamentary Conferences on Family, Sovereignty and Values that have developed this draft charter are supported, funded and shaped by US-based conservative organisations, like Family Watch International, which is an anti-LGBTI organisation that has been channelling resources into Africa to change laws and shift policies. Not surprisingly, "This is legislative capture dressed as deliberation. The draft Charter was incubated in conferences funded by US-based organisations whose presence has no mandate for many African people. (To be contd)