AFRICA: Limited Advances in Reproductive Health Rights for Women

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Aug 31 1997 (IPS) - In Tanzania, a school girl is immediately expelled by her headteacher if she falls pregnant while at school. Rarely is she given another chance to continue her education once her baby has been born.

But in Ghana, young girls, after giving birth, are urged to return to school, “provided that she has relatives to look after her baby when she’s attending classes,” says Elizabeth Solomon of the Ghana Legal Aid Centre. Nonetheless, the girl’s returning to school still depends entirely upon her family’s financial capability to meet her tuition fees.

The reproductive health rights of women and girls still need to be improved throughout Africa, women meeting here at a four-day conference, said.

Organised by the Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRPL- USA) and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA- Kenya), the women gathered in Nairobi to review the status of women three years after the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt, and two years after the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China.

Although the Cairo and Beijing parleys have forced the issue of reproductive rights onto the international agenda where they have now effectively been recognised as critical both to advancing women’s human rights and to promoting development, the participants said Africa has a long way to go.

The reproductive health status of women in some African countries also has been chronicled in a new publication, ‘Women of the World: Laws and Policies Affecting their Reproductive Lives’, which launched here Aug. 28 at the end of the meeting.

The 173-page report, released by CRPL-USA and FIDA-Kenya, is the result of an intensive 18-month examination of laws and policies affecting women’s reproductive health in seven Anglophone African nations: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

According to the report, while most of these countries have numerous policies addressing a range of common reproductive health problems, including high rates of maternal and infant mortality, and transmission of HIV/AIDS, these health problems continue to persist and, in some cases, have worsen.

“There is a serious gap in the region between formal legal and policy statements, and their execution. This difference between stated law and policy and their effect, is attributable to severe shortcomings in government action,” said Jean Kamau, director of FIDA-Kenya.

For example, many governments have failed to address traditional practices harmful to women in Africa. In Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, for instance, a significant number of women — 90 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent respectively — undergo female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision. Early marriage and pregnancy are also prevalent in Anglophone Africa, and often early pregnancy is compounded by the health problems caused by traditional practices.

The women also discussed the failure of governments to reduce the high levels of maternal and infant mortality. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, the maternal mortality rate still ranges from 800 to 1,500 deaths per 100,000 live births. This is estimated to be among the highest in the world.

Its infant mortality rate of 83 deaths per 1,000 births is also regarded as high. According to the report, the average number of children born by a Nigerian woman is six.

“High rates of maternal mortality are partially attributable to women’s lack of access to emergency obstetric services and to the very limited circumstances in each country in which a legal abortion is available,” said Anika Rahman, director of the CRLP- USA. “Infant mortality rates can be partly explained by women’s lack of access to postnatal care and information.”

The participants also criticised the inequality in the rights of women to marry and divorce as men, and the denial of their rights to inheritance, particularly if they are widows.

There are, however, a few exceptions. “In Ghana, under the existing law, for example, the family (children and wife) gets three-quarters of the leftover property of the deceased. The rest is taken by his relatives,” said Solomon.

According to her, the Ghanaian police also is empowered to return to the family home any property of the deceased collected by his relations. And, as Rahman said, the situation in the region is not all bad. “Despite these severe inadequacies in promoting reproductive rights, there are some positive models to be found in the region,” she said.

She cites the Bill of Rights enshrined in the South African Constitution of 1996. The Bill of Rights grants everyone the right to bodily and physical integrity, and includes the right “to make decisions regarding reproduction”.

“It also expressly prohibits against unfair discrimination on the basis of gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, or sexual orientation,” Rahman added.

A major problem facing Africa, said Kalimi Mworia of the Nairobi-based International Planned Parenthood Federation, is the fact that the concept of reproductive rights is not, in the minds of many people, equal to human rights. One strategy for change is to take a leaf from the lobbying efforts of activists in the North and legislators must be trained in gender issues.

“We must learn from our North American friends who assign staff to lobby legislators on the Capitol Hill. We should do the same…in order to change people’s attitude towards reproductive rights,” Mworia added.