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 Re: Sudan: Flogging and Harassment of Women Continue (Re: nada ali)
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Within the African continent, women’s groups need to exert continuous pressure on the continent’s H.e.a.d.s of state and government-- including those participating in the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) meeting in Lusaka-- to ensure ratification and proper implementation of the African Women’s Rights protocol, which prohibits inhuman and degrading punishment, such as flogging. The African Women’s Rights Protocol, which Sudan has signed in June 2008 but did not ratify, states in Article 4(1) that “Every woman shall be entitled to respect for her life and the integrity and security of her person. All forms of exploitation, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment shall be prohibited.” In Article 8, the protocol further mandates states parties to “take all appropriate measures to ensure that law enforcement organs at all levels are equipped to effectively interpret and enforce gender equality rights”; and to ensure the “reform of existing discriminatory laws and practices in order to promote and protect the rights of women.”
By continuing to harass women and flogging them, and by restricting women’s the freedom of assembly, Sudan not only violates the African Women’s Rights Protocol, but it also violates the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region’s Protocol on the Prevention and Suppression of Sexual Violence against Women and Children, which Sudan ratified in 2008. The Protocol defines sexual violence in a way that includes “gender-based violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately.” H.e.a.d.s of State and Government gathered in Lusaka to discuss measures to eradicate the illegal exploitation of natural resources which feeds and fuels conflicts in the region, should ensure that member states in the ICGLR, such as Sudan refrain from inflicting harm and abuse on the continent’s most important resources: human beings, and especially women.
The Struggle Continues
© Nada Mustafa Ali, December 2010
(عدل بواسطة nada ali on 12-15-2010, 03:08 PM)
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nada ali
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