Inter Press Service - December 1, 2004
Moyiga Nduru

The comment came during a one-day workshop organised by the leading British charity, Oxfam, in the South African capital of Pretoria, Tuesday.

Mabele, who is herself HIV-positive, works for the Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. She says she contracted the virus at the age of 19: "It was diagnosed after I experienced constant headaches," Mabele explained.

Tuesday's discussion focused on the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. This was in line with the theme for World AIDS Day (Dec. 1), namely "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS". The protocol addresses many of the problems that make women especially vulnerable to AIDS.

The rights code, the first to be developed by Africans for women on the continent, was adopted by the 53-nation African Union last year.

According to a statement issued by Oxfam, "(The protocol) represents a comprehensive legal framework that offers African women a mechanism to exercise the protection of their rights. It has 32 articles, covering a broad range of human rights issues and makes equality advances for women under international law."

These articles include special protection for vulnerable groups such as widows and the disabled. Once it enters into force, the protocol will require governments to align their laws with its provisions - and even create legislation to protect women's rights where this is not already in existence.

As of Nov. 9, there were only 31 signatories to the protocol, while just five states had ratified it - Comoros, Lesotho, Libya, Namibia and Rwanda. Ten more ratifications are needed to bring the protocol into force, says Judith Flick, Oxfam's Regional Director for Southern Africa who is also in charge of the charity's global HIV/AIDS initiative.

Certain participants at Tuesday's workshop expressed concern about the difficulties of implementing the protocol. They pointed, for example, to a possible backlash against its prohibition of female genital mutilation (FGM), a damaging procedure that is carried out on thousands of women in Africa.

"Some women don't even want it to be called FGM. They would say 'This is our tradition and stay away from it'," said Imelda Boikanyo, a consultant on gender and sexual reproductive health.

She also questioned how the protocol's provisions on the legal age of marriage would be enforced.

"If the law says girls should marry at 18, then what should parliament do about our kings who marry girls as young as 16 years of age? Are our kings above the constitution?" Boikanyo asked. Swaziland's King Mswati has come under fire from women's groups for marrying girls as young as 16 years of age.

The protocol also states that a woman should have the right to abortion in the event of falling pregnant through rape or incest - or in instances where continuation of the pregnancy would endanger her health. However, even this limited provision of abortion remains a contentious issue in certain African countries.

In sub-Saharan Africa, close to 60 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS (13.5 million people) are women, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. On average there are 13 HIV-positive women for every 10 HIV-positive men.

The difference in HIV-infection levels between women and men is even more pronounced among young people aged 15 to 24. Women in that age bracket are, on average, three times more likely to be infected than men.

In South Africa, for example, 20 young women will contract HIV for every 10 young men. In Kenya and Mali the discrepancy is greater: for every 10 young men who contract the virus in these countries, 45 young women will do so.

Some of these infections are linked to violence against women.

"Violence against women takes various forms. It's found in the home, in the workplace, in the bus or in the train," Rose Dawaya, a gender advisor at Oxfam, told IPS.

"Therefore, every day we must stop violence against women. It should not only be left to the police or the state, but everybody should get involved," she added. "It's a long campaign. We can't relax."

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