(VAW) and Women's Political Participation in Rwanda, Benin
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THE AUTONOMY PROJECT A REPORT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN RWANDA, BENIN & TUNISIA Author: Lisa Ally Co-Authors & Editors: Varyanne Sika & Nozizwe Ntesang Design & Layout: Naadira Patel Published by The Coalition of African Lesbians (2020) www.cal.org.za Acknowledgement The Coalition of Afrian Lesbians (CAL) acknowledges the generous support of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) through which this report and the expansion of the Autonomy project to Rwanda, Benin and Tunisia was made possible. CAL thanks our partners in Benin, Rwanda and Tunisia for working with us diligently in the autonomy project and for trusting us to work with them in their activism. Thank you to the entire team at CAL (those present and those who have since left) for providing your thoughts and ideas either directly or indirectly on how to improve this report throughout the course of its production, and; for providing the support that the report team required to produce this report. © Copyright CAL 2020. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Any part of this report may be copied, translated, or adapted only with the permission from the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) on the condition that it is for non- commercial purposes, and that CAL and the authors are acknowledged. CAL and the authors would appreciate receiving a copy of any materials in which significant components of this report are used. CONTENTS Abbreviations 5 Summary 7 Introduction 12 Literature Review 14 Eliminating Violence Against Women & Girls - Advocating & Ensuring Sustained Respect for Bodily Integrity and Autonomy 14 Defining Violence Against Women and Girls 15 International and Regional Human Rights Instruments on Violence Against Women 17 Benin 23 Rwanda 29 Tunisia 35 Women’s Political Participation 40 Benin 47 Rwanda 51 Tunisia 55 Landscape of Advocacy for Women’s Autonomy in Benin, Rwanda & Tunisia 58 Benin 59 Rwanda 60 Tunisia 61 Policy Overview & Audit 63 Benin 64 Violence against Women Legislation 64 Political Participation 66 Rwanda 67 National Gender Policy 67 Minimum Quota for Women’s Representation in Decision-making Organs 68 The National Gender-based Violence Policy 68 National Reproductive Health Policy 70 Tunisia 71 Gender Equality Policy 71 National Strategy to Combat Violence Against Women 72 Gaps and opportunities for Advocacy on Women’s autonomy and political participation in Benin, Rwanda & Tunisia 74 Conclusion 77 Recommendations 79 Bibliography 80 Annex 84 ABBREVIATIONS ACHPR African Commission on Human and People’s Rights AWDF African Women’s Development Fund CAL Coalition of African Lesbians CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women EDPRS Economic development and poverty reduction FGM Female genital mutilation GBV Gender- based violence GIZ Deutsche Geselleschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit HRC Human Rights Committee HRW Human Rights Watch MAFFEPA Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood and the Elderly MIGEPROF Ministère du Genre et de la Promotion de la Famille (Ministry of Gender and Women in Development) MINADEF Ministry of Defense and National Sovereignty MINALOC Ministry of Local Administration, Information and Social Affairs MINEDUC Ministry of Education MINIJUST Ministry of Justice and Institutional Affairs MINISANTE Ministry of Health NWC National Women’s Council ONFP National Board for Family and Population RCD Constitutional Democratic Rally RDHS Rwandan Demographic Health Survey RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front SADC South African Development Community SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SRHR Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 5 ABOUT THE AUTONOMY REPORT The Autonomy report on violence against women and women’s political participation in Rwanda, Benin and Tunisia was prepared as part of a project, aims to shift conversations on gender and women’s sexuality towards coherence, and an understanding and acknowledgement that women live without freedom or autonomy over their bodies, supported by the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). SUMMARY The Coalition of African Lesbians’ (CAL) strategy for 2019-2023 is focused, as a culmination of past years of work, on three pillars of work, ‘Think’, ‘Build’ and ‘Influence’. These pillars succinctly encapsulate CAL’s focus on feminist activism through a sexual politics lens. CAL’s thinking work involves consciousness- raising and producing knowledge in and of different forms. The building work involves fostering and growing relationships with and between activists and movements, as well as, supporting feminist community activism work that is done by and together with our members and partners. While all of CAL’s work is advocacy work by and large, the final pillar in the organization strategy, ‘influence’, is more directly geared towards direct action and dissent in advocacy. Influencing work involves lobbying for change in national, regional and international spaces, using media and knowledge produced at CAL to articulate messages and facilitate debate on various issues in feminism and sexuality politics. 7 This report is prepared as part of a project A review of literature on the project themes, supported by the African Women’s • An examination of the policies in Development Fund (AWDF) which aims to Rwanda, Benin and Tunisia which work with feminist activists and organisations focus on women’s bodily autonomy in Benin, Rwanda and Tunisia to shift and equal participation of women in conversations on gender and women’s sexuality governance, within both state and non-state actors. The direction of the shift in conversations on • Gaps and Opportunities for advocacy gender and women’s sexuality is aimed to be on the project themes in Rwanda, towards coherence and in understanding and Benin and Tunisia. acknowledgement that women live without • The landscape of advocacy in women’s freedom or autonomy over their bodies. This bodily autonomy and their participation project builds upon and continues CAL’s past in governance. A look at which work on bodily autonomy into Benin, Rwanda organizations and activists work on the and Tunisia. two areas in the three countries. The Autonomy project’s thematic focus in the There is a significant disconnect between three countries is twofold, i) the elimination legislation, policy formulation and of violence against women and girls and subsequently, policy implementation in issues sustaining respect for their bodily autonomy, ii) of violence against women and the political expanding the democratic space and sustaining participation of women. Benin, Rwanda and inclusive governance and equal political Tunisia are all party to the Convention on the participation of women. This is a two-year Elimination of Discrimination against Women project aimed at supporting and amplifying the (CEDAW). However, despite the existence existing advocacy work being done by feminists of the CEDAW convention since 1979, and in Benin, Rwanda and Tunisia, specifically on despite it being legally binding, enforcement the two thematic areas. CAL’s support for the challenges persist in most countries. In Benin, feminist advocacy in the three countries in this the Ministry of Family and National Solidarity project is by, building knowledge on women’s on Violence Against Women reported in 2010 realities, supporting feminist activists to lobby that a catastrophic 68% of women aged 15 states and to hold them accountable in fulfilling years and above had experienced violence at their obligations to uphold, protect and the hands of men at least once in their lifetime. promote women’s rights, and to support and In Rwanda, at least a quarter of the population promote solidarity and community care for and of women over 15 years1 have experienced among feminist activists. physical and sexual violence, and in Tunisia, The objective of this report is to understand the according to the first national survey on political and social contexts in which feminist gender-based violence, 47% of women have activism takes place in the three countries. experienced violence. In order to achieve this objective, this report While there exists legislation on the political consolidates the following: participation of women in Benin, Rwanda and Tunisia, legislation alone is insufficient to bolster participation. Various socio-economic 1 This is a significant drop from the 50% of women of having experienced violence as reported in 2008 by the Ministère du Genre et de la Promotion de la Famille (MIGEPROF), in the report on Scaling Up for Zero Tolerance: Effective Responses to Violence Against Women and Girls. 8 factors hinder this participation, these factors The World Economic Forum established are often rooted in traditional family and and first published the Global Gender societal values which still hold significant Gap Report in 2006 which uses an index to weight in these countries, and ultimately deter measure gender equality in countries based meaningful participation of women in decision- on health, education, economy and politics. making processes. In instances where women CAL notes that the Global Gender Gap report do attempt to be involved in political decision- is a report based on assessing women’s making, their participation in politics is often inclusion in an economy that exploits and sabotaged and railroaded by intimidation undervalues them while offering no structural tactics, lack of adequate funds to participate in or systemic analysis or solutions to the barriers political campaigns, manipulation, and in some to women’s exclusion. In