AU men support gender equity

2004-07-06 20:16

Addis Ababa - Some of Africa's most powerful men spoke out on Tuesday against gender discrimination and pledged themselves and their countries to strive for gender equality.

The presidents and one vice-president were debating the draft declaration on gender equality in Africa at the opening session of the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Newly appointed AU chairperson Olusegun Obasanjo said the debate was necessary because most African societies, "if not all", were male chauvinist.

Obasanjo suggested that each AU member state should prepare legislation to prevent discrimination against those living with Aids, most of whom were women.

Enabling legislation should also be enacted to stop what he called "revolting" traditional practices, an example of which he said occurred in Nigeria.

In this tradition, if a man dies in suspicious circumstances, his wife was forced to drink the water in which the corpse was bathed. If she does not die in seven days, it is assumed she had nothing to do with his death.

Earlier, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade proposed that the AU ensure gender equality at the continental, regional and national levels, and in all branches of government.

"We also need to encourage the elimination of female genital mutilation. Practitioners of this must be condemned and eventually it will be declared illegal," he said.

Rwanda women "indispensable"

Tracing Africa's rich history of heroines, Botswana's President Festus Mogae said the twin scourges of HIV/Aids and domestic violence disproportionately affected women.

Botswana has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection and according to Mogae, the number of assaults and murders on women had increased there in recent years.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame said the victimisation and humiliation of women in Rwanda reached its peak in during the genocide, where rape was used as a "method of destruction".

However, he said women today in that country were "indispensable" for reconstruction and reconciliation, proving that it was possible to reverse negative trends, such as gender inequality.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who did not want to repeat what had been previously stated, said the promotion of gender equality formed part of the Constitutive Act of the AU, and was therefore law.

The sharp-eyed Mbeki noted that a second draft circulated before the assembly was a "sanitised" version of an earlier draft, which originally recommended that countries produce and annual report on gender equality progress.

The second version proposed that this function be moved to the AU Commission, which would release an annual report.

"I would say that all of us should report annually," he said to applause.

Mbeki also proposed that the private sector be encouraged to adopt gender equity programmes.

- SAPA