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4.1. Issue Analysis
4. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND HARMFUL PRACTICES
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4.1. Issue Analysis
Violence against women (VAW) is prevalent in public and private spheres in most countries. In Africa, women face violence in the workplace, educational and health institutions as well as in public social environments. Sexual harassment, sexual assault and trafficking of women and girls are examples of this phenomenon. In the private sphere, manifestations of VAW include domestic violence; marital rape; child, early and forced marriage; FGM; widow inheritance; and economic abuse and exploitation of girls and women. Owing to fears of stigma and community or familial reprisal, many victims and survivors do not readily access law and justice systems by reporting incidents of VAW.1333 The drivers are often embedded in patriarchal power systems and institutions in which patterns of gender subordination and stereotypes result in inequality between women and men. Unequal power relations between men and women have bred VAW, with women being disproportionately affected as the targets and victims.
The Maputo Protocol1334 defines VAW as all acts perpetrated against women that may cause them physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm, and that take place in private or public life, in peace times and during situations of armed conflict or war. Article 4 prohibits all forms of VAW, calling on States Parties to enact and enforce laws prohibiting VAW and to adopt measures, as may be necessary, to ensure the prevention, punishment and eradication of all forms of VAW. The Protocol uniquely calls on governments to undertake measures to eradicate traditional and cultural beliefs, practices and stereotypes that legitimise and exacerbate the persistence and tolerance of VAW. In so doing, it casts light on societal and cultural practices that result in harm to women and girls.
The Protocol defines harmful practices as all behaviour, attitudes and/or practices that negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such as their physical integrity. Article 5 calls
on States Parties to prohibit and condemn all forms of harmful practices that adversely affect the human rights of women and to adopt all necessary legislative and other measure to eliminate such practices. Such measures include creating public awareness in all sectors of society regarding harmful practices; and prohibition, through legislation and sanctions, of all forms of FGM, scarification, medicalisation and para-medicalisation of FGM and other practices in order to eradicate them. It also includes the protection of women who are at risk of being subjected to harmful practices or all other forms of violence, abuse and intolerance across Africa.
Over the Decade, the AU highlighted the priority of ending VAW in Africa, as reflected in its institutional and policy frameworks at various levels. The AU Gender Policy called on all AU organs, RECs and Member States to develop and enforce explicit gender policies aligned with the UN and AU gender policies, emphasising the elimination of all forms of discrimination and VAW. The AU Gender Strategy 2018–2027 integrates VAW as a cross-cutting theme running through all its pillars. The AU Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) includes a focus on VAW in its mandate. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has had the mechanism of Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa since 1998,1335 whose mandate includes addressing VAW. In 2010, the AU launched a Continental Initiative to End Female Mutilation and Save 50 Million Girls at Risk. This aimed to stimulate political action to enforce strong legislation, increase the allocation of financial resources and strengthen partnerships to end FGM, in particular within communities most impacted by the harmful practice.1336 In 2014, the AU launched its Campaign to End Child Marriage to accelerate the end of this harmful practice in Africa and to increase awareness of its effects.1337
The AU declared 2015 the Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development Towards Africa’s Agenda 2063, and 2016 the African Year of Human Rights with a Particular Focus on the Rights of Women. Both years underscored the importance of realising women’s rights and, for example, eliminating VAW as stipulated in the Maputo Protocol and other international agreements. The Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa called on the AU to embark on a sustained public campaign against GBV. Echoing this, the AU Gender Strategy, under Pillar 3 on Women’s Rights, establishes the need for an AU targeted campaign to reduce GBV by a third by 2023, in line with Agenda 2063. In 2020, the AU’s WGDD began developing a framework for the AU Campaign on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls to accelerate the implementation of agreed obligations to prevent and end this practice.1338
