By Mustapha Sesay
Sierra Leone has finally ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, commonly referred to as the Maputo Protocol.
The ratification by Parliament last week Thursday comes nearly 12 years since the country signed the Protocol which was created to supplement the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right after it was widely observed that the latter failed to capture specific issues considered of grave importance to womanhood.
Parliament adopted the document after various speeches festooned with assurances by MPs of its significance.
Sierra Leone signed the protocol on 11th July 2003, but ratifying it and subsequently domesticating it had sparked a lot of controversies because most of its recommendations are seen by many as directly contravening the cultural and traditional practices of the country.
One such controversial recommendation is as proclaimed in article five (5) of the protocol, which seeks to prohibit, through legislative measures backed by sanctions, “all forms of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), medicalisation and para-medicalisation of female genital mutilation and all other practices in order to eradicate them.”
Many Sierra Leonean women have either undergone FGM or are making a living by it. Most of these people therefore see the dictates of this article as going against a practice that defines womanhood.
Before ratifying the protocol, members of parliament were assured that the practice of FGM was by no means under direct attack and would not be prohibited as suggested.
Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children Affairs, Moijueh Kai Kai, told the House that the plan was not to ban Bondo [the traditional word for cultural event which has become synonymous with FGM because it has been a major part of it]. But the minister reminded the MPs and some women who stormed parliament to witness the occasion of the existence of age limit in terms of FGM in the country. The government had signed MoUs with Sowies (the women who conduct FGM) prohibiting the initiation of girls under 18.
“We did not come here to ban Bondo,” Minister Kai Kaqi assured, directly addressing the elderly women up in the parliament gallery.
Some lawmakers described the adoption of the protocol as long overdue.
The civil society organisation IPAS has partnered with the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children Affairs for over two years to ensure that parliament ratified the protocol. Its Country Director Valerie Turker told Politico after the parliamentary session that the ratification the protocol was “a win for the women of Sierra Leone” because it sought to strengthen them.
Debating on the protocol prior to its ratification, opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) MP, Emma Kowa, pointed out that parliament had ratified a lot of United Nations protocols which had also been domesticated. And most of those protocols, she said, already captured what is in the Maputo Protocol. She cited as example the Child Rights Act which prohibits underage marriage for girls.
Another female lawmaker, Jaraitu Rosaline Smith of the ruling All Peoples Congress expressed “100 percent” for the document, noting its support for aborting pregnancies emanating from gang rape.
She urged the Social Welfare Ministry to consider creating a rehabilitation centre for rape victims, while calling for the criminalization of underage FGM.
Paran Tarawalley, SLPP Member, said there were many reasons parliament needed to ratify the protocol. Among these, he said, was that the protocol, if ratified, would ensure good health and sanitation for Sierra Leonean families and that it would make the country to be recognized international.
MP Tarawalley said the protocol also addresses the issue of widows and protects elderly women who are most often neglected in society. He told his male colleagues that the protocol was not contentious as most of them had viewed it, noting that the document was not aimed at creating confusion in homes; rather it was meant to strengthen matrimonial homes.
Commenting on the area of FGM, MP Tarawalley, who is representing a constituency in Bo where the practice is viewed with high esteem, defined Bondo as an informal institution where young girls were trained into womanhood in order to be able to take care of their matrimonial home when they may eventually get married.
Thus, he said, such a practice should be maintained. But he pointed out that any other harmful practice like FGM should be abolished.
Minority Leader Barnelditte Lahai, contributing to the debate, said Sierra Leone might be 34 years down the line since the Maputo Protocol and may have missed out on lots of benefits as result of that, but it was good that the country had now considered it for ratification.
She said it was good that Sierra Leoneans loved their culture but she noted that there were cultural practices that did not serve the best interest of the people anymore and that those that have proved useful should be guided.
MP Lahai then cautioned that though Bondo society was useful, there should be an age limit to it, and that the people should be educated about this.
(C) Politico 07/07/15
