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Women's Rights in the Two Sudans

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Women's Rights in the Two Sudans Women’s rights in the two Sudans A study on the adoption of legislation on women’s rights in Sudan and South Sudan Political Science C, Bachelor’s Thesis Uppsala University, 2020 Author: Joanna Nathanson Supervisor: Pär Zetterberg Word count: 13988 1 2 Abstract In 2011 the state of South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan and thus became the world’s youngest country to date. During its nine years of existence the country has ratified several major conventions and protocols on women’s rights, whereas Sudan has yet to ratify any. Despite being the same country until barely a decade ago the two authoritarian countries have approached the legislative rights of women in very different manners. Based on a Method of Difference-design, and with the help of process-tracing, this study seeks to answer why this is. By consulting previous research on why authoritarian states advance women’s rights, this study distinguishes three main, indicative theoretical patterns from earlier research which argues under what circumstances authoritarian states advance women’s rights, and when they do not. These patterns include the stability of the government, the work of women’s rights movements and the states relations with the international community. It is concluded that the explanation for the different behaviours of the two Sudans lay mainly in their tactics of governing. South Sudan adopts reforms on gender equality to keep its population content but makes sure to closely control and monitor these reforms. Their women’s rights organisations can be outspoken, and they share the goals of ratifying certain women’s rights conventions. Furthermore, their main donors often include conditions of state-building on their foreign aid, forcing South Sudan to advance on issues such as women’s rights. In contrast, Sudan applies a more violent and oppressing stance against its population, suppress women’s movements and rely mainly on unconditional investments rather than conditional aid from the international community. Furthermore, the women’s movements of Sudan have not expressed a shared goal of ratifying conventions on women’s rights. 3 Table of content Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Map ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 6 2. Purpose and research question ........................................................................................................... 6 3. History ................................................................................................................................................. 8 3.1. Sudan under colonial rule............................................................................................................. 8 3.2. One Sudan .................................................................................................................................... 9 3.3. From the CPA to independence ................................................................................................. 12 4. Theory: Why do authoritarian states support women’s rights? ....................................................... 14 4.1. An unstable government ............................................................................................................ 15 4.2. Women’s organisations .............................................................................................................. 16 4.3. Legitimacy in the eyes of others ................................................................................................. 17 6. Results and analysis ........................................................................................................................... 20 6.1. South Sudans ratification process of CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol ................................... 20 6.2. Sudans process to non-ratification ............................................................................................. 22 6.3. The stability of the regimes ........................................................................................................ 22 6.4. Women’s movements ................................................................................................................ 26 6.5. International dependence .......................................................................................................... 29 6.6. Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 32 7. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 34 8. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 36 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................ 43 4 Map 1 1 United Nations, ‘Sudan’ (2012) <https://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/sudan.pdf> accessed 10 April 2020; United Nations, ‘South Sudan’ (2011) <https://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/southsudan.pdf> accessed 10 April 2020. 5 1. Introduction In 2011, the international family gained a new member, South Sudan. It is thereby, with its nine years, the youngest country in the world at time of writing. South Sudan parted from Sudan after decades of almost perpetual war and conflict, dividing Africa’s largest country. Since then, the two states have had time to go their own ways in terms of policymaking and development. With this opportunity, they have decided on very different directions regarding the advancement of women’s rights. Since 2011, South Sudan has acted to ratify and implement several major conventions and protocols on women’s rights. These include the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), considered one of the major developments regarding women’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights2, as well as adopting its Optional Protocol to CEDAW (CEDAW-OP). They have also ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) and created a National Action Plan (NAP) to United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1325 (res. 1325). In contrast, the Sudan has not ratified a single one of these, nor created a NAP for res. 1325. Why is this so? Why is it that even though these two states were the same nation until just nine years ago, they have in such short time taken very different approaches to the legislation of women’s rights? This is the question this study hopes to answer. 2. Purpose and research question The purpose of this study is to understand why the Sudan and South Sudan has gone their different ways when it comes to advancing women’s rights policies. To understand this, this study will make use of a design of John Stuart Mills Method of Difference (MoD)3 and the method of process-tracing4. Not only is gender equality one of the UN Development Goals of Agenda 20305, it is essential for development of all kinds. Gender equality and gender equity have been proven to excel state economies and production levels6 as well as increase the 2 UN General Assembly, ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’, 1979 3 J.S. Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, 1882, chapter VIII. 4 A. L. George and A. Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Scienes, 2005. 5 United Nations, ‘Sustainable Development Goal 5’ <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5>. 6 UN Women, ‘Facts and Figures: Economic Empowerment’, 2018 <https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we- do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures> accessed 17 April 2020. 6 likelihood of a sustainable peace7. By ensuring gender equality one can also save the thousands of women succumbing to gender-based violence8, help those who are denied education9 and decrease the number of women dying due to lack of healthcare10. Whether your concerns of development are economic, political, social or cultural, there are a multitude of benefits in creating gender equality by supporting women’s rights. The first step to do so is by acknowledging these rights and providing means and methods to implement them. This is done using conventions, protocols, policies and action plans. Therefore, we must know what measures and circumstances engage states in the strive for gender equality. Today, most of the world’s countries has ratified CEDAW. The Sudan signed the convention in 2008 but have not yet ratified it11. When the country was split into two, birthing the new state of South Sudan, the new country was quick to ratify not only CEDAW but several other legislative documents on women’s rights. All the while, the Sudan remained inactive in its work for gender equality, making progress first in 2020 by banning female mutilation12. This makes the Sudan and South Sudan splendid cases to look closer at in trying to find why some states advance women’s rights and why some do not. Several scholars
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