Malawi,
UAF-Africa makes a grant to Malawi to advocate against poor quality anti-retro viral (ARV) drugs, said to cause more harm than good.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Africa. In response to this, the government has been providing ARV’s whose composition is said to be causing a condition called lipodostrophy where body fats move from the lower part of the body to the upper part of the body, resulting in women’s bodies forming new distinct shapes. This has led to increased stigma and discrimination, because this redistribution of fat is visible and those using anti-retroviral drugs can therefore be easily identified. This has reversed the gains that have been made previously to fight against discrimination and stigma.
The women who have been affected report that there is noticeably more fat on the back of the neck, lower abdomen, and breasts; and less fat on the arms, thighs, buttocks, and face. This redistribution of fat is causing physical discomfort among them. In addition, it increases the risk levels of cardiovascular disease, caused by high levels of cholesterol in the blood.
The current government under the leadership of President Bingu Wa Mutharika has made great strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS, announcing in March 2010 that it had plans to increase the number of persons receiving free ARVs from 200,000 to over half a million by the end of 2010. This is in an attempt to meet the WHO target of starting ARV treatment when the individuals reach a CD4 count of 350 instead of the current 200.
Much as the public lauds the efforts by the government to provide free ARVs to more people, the ARV’S being distributed compose of , D4T which is known to cause the shifting of body fats to the stomach, the back of the neck and to the breasts. It is also widely known to cause insulin resistance which can lead to diabetes.
This has adversely affected the HIV/AIDS campaign because those who are HIV positive and have not started taking the ARVs are refusing to start for fear of the side effects.
Women for Fair Development (WOFAD) intends to work with medical professionals to lobby the government to provide better antiretroviral drugs that do not affect women in all public health facilities.
Kenya,
UAF-Africa's grantee, Ann Njogu receives the 2010 International Women of Courage Award.
Ann received the award on the 8th March 2010 from the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama at the US State Department.
To listen to the ceremony please Click Here
Namibia,
Urgent Action Fund-Africa makes a ground breaking grant to Women Solidarity Namibia to pursue a precedent setting case against the government of Namibia.
15 women are seeking compensation for damages they suffered when they were forcefully sterilized based on their HIV status. Women Solidarity Namibia, and Legal Assistance Center Research filed a lawsuit late last year against the government of Namibia for what they termed as complacency and failure to stop the unethical practice of sterilizing them. They further accuse the government of failing to create an environment in which their constitutional and basic human rights could be realized. The women are demanding an end to the sterilizations and are seeking monetary compensation for the damages that they have suffered as a result of the sterilizations.
UAF-Africa is supporting the women pay legal fees for the court case.
Research conducted by the International Community of Women living with Aids shows that forced sterilization is part of a broader range of discriminations faced by HIV positive women in sexual and reproductive health services and particularly against positive women who are pregnant or desire children. ICW decided to initiate a project to identify women who have experienced this form of discrimination, and assist them in seeking legal redress for wrongs committed against them, and advocate for the end of coerced sterilization in Namibia. The women who are now suing the government argue that the medical personnel violated their rights under the Namibian constitution to be free from discrimination and inhuman and degrading treatment; their right to dignity; and their right to a family.
In the research, the women gave the reasons cited by health care personnel in government hospitals for encouraging sterilization as prior caesarian sections or miscarriages, status as single or widowed, unemployment, already has children, poor health, and/or complications with ARVs. One woman reported that she was asked by a provider what she felt she had to offer a baby “given that she was unemployed and without a partner.” Women who reported being sterilized or pressured to be sterilized stated that they sensed a direct correlation between their HIV status and their being encouraged to be sterilized. The sterilization of positive women is one of the most egregious forms of discrimination against HIV positive women in the health care setting.
Those who have been sterilized allege that in some instances the medical personnel obtained the women's consent under duress. Some of the women allegedly be asked to sign consent forms while they were in labor or on their way to the operating room. In other cases, the women had to agree to be sterilized if they wanted other medical procedures such as an abortion or caesarean section. And in yet another type of coercion, medical staff included sterilization consent forms in a pile of "routine" forms women were told to sign prior to giving birth; no explanation was provided on the nature of the forms. Some women did not realize they had been sterilized until several months later
This form of violation goes against numerous rights guaranteed under:
Namibian Constitution,
Namibia’s obligations under International law and
Namibia’s regional human rights obligations under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Namibia has also ratified the following conventions;
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR);
• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); and the Convention Against Torture (CAT).
These international treaties are legally binding and obligate the Namibian government to respect, protect, and fulfill these rights for people living in Namibia. These obligations include the right to information, the right to health, the right to bodily integrity, the right to non-discrimination, the right to equality, the right to live free from inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to non-interference in one’s privacy, the right to health, and the right to reproductive self-determination.
The population of Namibia is approximately 2 million with a HIV prevalence rate of 15.3%.
Sudan,
The story of Lubna Ahmed: Urgent Action Fund- Africa’s Grantee.
On the 7th of July, 2009, a punishment of 40 lashes was ordered for Ms. Lobna Ahmed Al Hussein, a Sudanese female journalist, for wearing trousers. This attire was considered a violation of public order and morals and described as "an indecent act." According to Article 152 of the 1991 penal code, "anyone who commits an indecent act or behaviour, which violates public order and morals, by wearing improper attire and disturbing public order, shall receive 40 lashes and/or pay a fine."
This decision contradicted all international instruments and the Arab Human Rights Charter adopted by the Arab Summit and ratified by the member states in Tunisia in 2004. It further contradicted all international instruments and agreements criminalizing such a punishment in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights.
A Women’s Rights Organization based in Sudan called ECWR received funding from UAF-Africa to support this precedent setting appeal against her sentence.
After the appeal, her sentence was reduced from 40 lashes to a $200 fine, which Lubna refused to pay, preferring to go to jail instead as a means of challenging the law's legitimacy.
Currently Lubna has defied a travel ban by going to France to publicize her new book : Forty lashes for a pair of trousers..." Read her interview with Reuters, below
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/802506/-/126voj4z/-/index.html
Honorate Nizigiyimana
I have been an activist longer than I have been a mother. I have spent more time working on women’s human rights than on anything else for the longest time. It’s my passion. It gives me the privilege of helping others, of supporting fellow women in need. The women come to us for assistance when they feel that they are in danger, when they have experienced some sort of violence or when they simply need information and other resources that help them improve their lives. I am always humbled by the difference made by some of the little things we do for them. A smile, an open door, a listening ear, a few francs, letting them know that you care, that they matter, a push in the right direction, in terms of options the women have and choices they can make; advice.
But it’s hard when we [activists] get attacked for doing the right thing, for telling the truth or for standing up to speak out against human rights violations and impunity when no one else will dare. It is worse when the threats and attacks are from your community or your family. They attack us for for extending our support to the vulnerable. Innocent people attacked for reasons they themselves do not understand.
But my work around small arms has helped me realise that even the perpetrators are sometimes just like their victims. For example the child soldiers or the men abducted from their homes and forced to commit various human rights violations.
That is why we promote restorative and reconciliatory justice, as opposed to retributive justice. Burundians need to heal first.
Challenges
Where do I begin? The challenges faced by women are numerous in Burundi; poverty, discrimination, HIV/AIDS, Retrogressive cultural beliefs and practices, poor leadership, violence against women, sexual violence, illiteracy, limited access to information and decision making spaces, impunity, small arms, threats and attacks against human rights defenders…I could go on and on......!
The most glaring challenge for me is when women work so hard and for so long, only for their successes to be brought crumbling down in a matter of hours or days. For example when we work so hard to have laws passed and then they are not implemented fully. Or we collect data over a long period of time only for people to destroy our computers, or we convince Burundians to give up their weapons and some people instantly turn it into a trade, the military selling the weapons back to the people or the people going across the border to buy weapons that they can then ‘turn in’ to the government for a small fee. In Burundi, virtually everyone has a weapon, the young, the old, those in uniform, the common citizen.....
Even the women and the activists have weapons because they feel unsafe.
Successes
We do a lot of documentation and advocacy, focusing on women’s rights, development and small arms. We have been successful in partnering with both local and international partners, including Collectif des Associations et ONG Féminines du Burundi (CAFOB – Burundi) (the largest women’s network in Burundi), the Burundi women parliamentarians network, IANSA, Search for Common Ground and the Urgent Action Fund- Africa.
UAF-Africa is well organized. When you call on them for support, they respond quicker than you can imagine.
Honorate a is the Coordinator of Developpement Agropastoral et Sanitaire (DAGROPASS), based in Bujumbura, Burundi. DAGROPASS works on women’s rights, development and peacebuilding, with a special focus on small arms and light weapons in the region. Honorate played a key role in setting up IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms) offices in Burundi.
LEYMAH GBOWEE
“…My work basically is around women’s involvement in peace and security processes. I went to work with the West Africa Network for Peace Building, in their Women’s Programme that was founded and developed by my colleague, Thelma Ekiyor. She gave us the idea and each one of us who attended the meeting that conceptualized WIPNET decided to take it back to our individual countries and try to make it realistic to our different contexts. I started the Women Peace Building Network as a programme officer working with women peace builders in Liberia. So for five years basically I did the work of building the capacity of women to engage at different levels. In 2003, I moved on to the Christian Women Peace Initiative and the Liberian Muslim Women for Peace and we then started the women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace Campaign.
Liberian women wanted peace
…The 14 year conflict in our country took a heavy toll on women. This has remained a painful legacy for the Liberian women…….You see women were forcefully recruited in the rebel movement and had no choice but to participate in the war either as logisticians for the rebels or as their sex slaves. The rest were sexually violated, degraded, abused and denigrated. Rape became a common and terrifying part of the Liberian women’s lives…….very traumatizing experiences.
Being in the thick of it myself, I realized that what trauma does to people is at two levels; it either disempowers completely or empowers you. So you have two options; fight or flight. For the Liberian women, they had limited options because there was nowhere to run….. So it was turning back and confronting the systems or the structures and the individuals who were perpetrating the violence, but then instead of using violence as a mechanism we used non- violent means that the society saw and recognized as a different and effective way of doing things.
We started the non-violent campaign that brought together thousands of women to stop the madness that had become synonymous with the conflict. …..so for two and a half years, having borne the brunt of the violence, we made it clear to the protagonists that we had had enough of the war…… Our strategies were, peaceful protests, picketing, media outreach, advocating for women’s involvement in the peace process, advocating for women’s involvement in the implementation of the peace accord, their participation in the disarmament process,…. we wanted women to be involved in the electoral process and we wanted women to be involved in the democratic governance of Liberia. We were able to do all these activities with the support of the Urgent Action Fund-Africa.
Looking back I have no regrets. Liberia is the only African country to have a female President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. I am proud to have played a significant role in bringing sanity to our beloved country Liberia. ….Well personally it has been a good journey;
As an activist in Africa or any other continent for that matter, you have to know both the social and political contexts of your region. For me it has been a learning process, it has been an enlightening process but also a very challenging one…… because constantly along the way you have to stop and reflect, you have to stop and question some of the structures and the status quo in society, you have to stop and answer questions be it from government, be it from non-state actors, be it from individuals who you work with….. There is a constant battle... but those are all things that make the work very interesting and fulfilling.
Leymah Gbowee first worked with the Lutheran Church Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Programme in Liberia as a case worker. She later joined the Women in Peace building (WIPNET) program of the West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) and was key in the Liberia Mass Action for Peace Campaign that contributed towards the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2004. Leymah is now the Executive Director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, an organization that works to enhance women’s participation in peace processes as well as the security governance architecture in Africa
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