WUNRN
SOUTHERN
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been in existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine majority-ruled States in Southern Africa known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), with the main aim of coordinating development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa.
The SADC Member States are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/14/safric19619.htm
(Johannesburg,
August 14, 2008) – Southern African leaders should adopt the proposed Gender
and Development Protocol at their upcoming summit after amending it to include
crucial provisions deleted in 2007, Human Rights Watch said today. One of the
most important provisions that should be put back in to the protocol would
commit states to criminalize marital rape.
Heads of state and government from
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are to meet in Johannesburg
on August 16-17, 2008 to launch the SADC Free Trade Area and discuss regional
issues including political developments in the region, particularly the crisis
in Zimbabwe, and will consider adopting the draft Gender and Development
Protocol.
“Developments in the region, including the crisis in Zimbabwe and food
insecurity, can have devastating effects on the lives of women,” said Nada Ali,
Africa researcher in the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch.
“Governments serious about development, democracy and the fight against HIV in
southern Africa should adopt and implement the gender protocol with the
necessary amendments.”
The draft Gender and Development Protocol is the result of a process that
started in 2005, with the audit of SADC’s Declaration on Gender and Development
and its addendum on Preventing and Eradicating Gender-Based Violence. If
adopted, it would oblige member states to amend their laws to ensure equal
rights for women across a wide range of issues, including constitutional and
legal reform, governance, education, productive resources, gender-based
violence, health, HIV/AIDS, peace-building and conflict resolution. But the
current draft does not refer explicitly to sexual violence in the home, and
that is likely to harm efforts to combat the devastating effects of AIDS in a
region with the highest HIV prevalence worldwide.
“Domestic violence, including marital rape, puts women at increased risk of HIV
infection and seriously undermines their ability to get effective treatment,”
said Ali. “Southern African heads of state should commit to preventing and
punishing domestic violence and to gender equality if they are serious about
curbing the spread of HIV.”
Since 2005, women’s rights organizations in Southern Africa have urged the SADC
to turn its Declaration on Gender and Development into a legally binding
protocol. The draft protocol should have been adopted in Zambia at the 2007
SADC heads of state and government summit, but was deferred for “further
consultation at national level.” The draft protocol has been reviewed by the
region’s gender and justice ministers, and will be considered by the SADC
Council of Ministers before presentation for adoption at the summit.
The draft protocol contains concrete, time-bound commitments aimed at
protecting women’s rights and ensuring equality between women and men. It
requires member states to: enshrine gender equality and equity in their
constitutions; review, amend and repeal laws that discriminate on the ground of
sex or gender; reduce maternal mortality by 75 percent; develop
gender-sensitive strategies to prevent new HIV infections and ensure universal
access to HIV and AIDS treatment; ensure gender parity in political
representation; adopt policies and enact laws that would ensure equal access to
economic resources by women and men; enact and enforce legislation prohibiting
all forms of gender-based violence; and review and reform criminal laws
applicable to cases of sexual offenses and gender-based violence by 2015.
The protocol requires state parties to report on the progress achieved in
implementing its measures every two years.
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SADC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
DR TOMAZ AUGUSTO SALOMÃO
ON THE OCCASION OF THE
PRE-SUMMIT DIPLOMATS BRIEFING
GENDER
DEVELOPMENT
In this area, guidelines for Member States’ national consultations and a roadmap towards the 28th Summit were was developed and circulated to Member States in January 2008.
As per this roadmap, the Ministers responsible for gender/women’s affairs met on April 30, 2008 in Windhoek, Namibia to consolidate inputs from Member States’ national consultations. The Ministers unanimously adopted and recommended the Draft SADC Protocol on Gender and Development for consideration by the Committee of Ministers of Justice/Attorneys-General at their meeting held on June 27, 2008 in Lusaka, Zambia.
In turn, the Committee of Ministers of Justice/Attorneys-General considered the draft SADC Protocol and recommended it to Council for consideration and approval during its meeting of August 2008, and submission to Summit in August for signature.
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