Statement By Equality Now On The Occasion Of The 42nd Ordinary Session Of The African Committee Of Experts On The Rights And Welfare Of The Child

Joint General Comment on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Equality Now welcomes the launch of the Joint General Comment on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by the Committee in collaboration with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). We believe that the General Comment will be a very useful tool in delineating States obligations under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) and the Maputo Protocol, and we call on the Committee and ACHPR to take on FGM as a priority issue and redouble efforts to hold states accountable to implementation of their obligations, especially pertaining to the adoption and implementation of specific laws prohibiting FGM in the continent.

Additionally, we urge the Committee to call upon State Parties to prioritize and urgently address the rise in the medicalization of FGM and cross-border FGM, particularly in countries such as Egypt and Kenya.

Challenge to the Anti-FGM Law in The Gambia

Equality Now is alarmed by the fast-developing situation in The Gambia, where attempts are being made to repeal the legal provisions within the Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015, which prohibit and criminalise FGM. While we welcome the joint statement issued by the Committee and the ACHPR, we urge this Committee to proactively engage the Government of The Gambia to prevent the situation from deteriorating further and ensure that it complies with its human rights obligations by maintaining the FGM provisions within the Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015  in place. Equally, we call on the Government of Gambia to impartially uphold the law against FGM to ensure that perpetrators continue to be held accountable and to uphold the protection of the rights and well-being of FGM survivors.

Call for accelerated efforts to end child marriage in Africa

Honourable Chairperson, we are concerned by UNICEF’s report that it will take 300 years to end child marriage at the current rate of progress. As noted in a Solidarity Statement recently issued by 34 CSOs from across East and Southern Africa, we urgently need accelerated action to end child marriage by 2030. Honourable Chairperson, the key actions are as follows:

1. All State Parties need to harmonize their laws to set the minimum age of marriage at 18 without exceptions; with specific penalties. We encourage the Government of Zambia to support the adoption of the amendments to the Marriage Act, which is presently going through the National Assembly processes.
2. State Parties should allocate adequate financial resources to implement costed national action plans, laws and policies against child marriage. 
3. Finally, to change social norms and achieve behaviour change, State Parties should plan for long-term youth-led and survivor-centred programming that brings together all stakeholders as agents of change, including men and boys, religious and traditional leaders, young people and survivors. 

The Situation of Pregnant Girls in Tanzania 

Honourable Committee Members, Equality Now recognises and appreciates the bold recommendations made by the Committee through its recent communication on the situation of Pregnant girls in Tanzania. However, Equality Now still has concerns about the situation of pregnant girls’ education in Tanzania. The  Education Act of Tanzania, enacted through Government Notice No. 295 under Regulation 4 (Expulsion and Exclusion of Pupils from Schools), authorises the permanent expulsion of pregnant and married girls from public schools.

Despite the Government of Tanzania’s efforts to initiate a re-entry policy for students who have dropped out of school through pregnancy, the policy barring pregnant girls, young mothers, and married girls still stands. These regulations stand despite Tanzania setting the age of marriage for girls at 14 with the consent of the court and 15 with parental consent in its Marriage Act. As a result of these laws, many girls are still at risk of child marriage, pregnancy, and, therefore, the loss of their right to education. Further, the state ought to develop a national action plan for the re-entry of girls to schools that are in line with international normative standards of being available, accessible and acceptable to ensure all girls are able to continue with their education, to break the cycles of violence and poverty. We urge the Committee to impress upon Tanzania to repeal Regulation 4 of the Education Act and, further, abide by the Court of Appeal decision banning child marriage without any exceptions. 

Call for Legal Reform to Protect Children from Sexual Violence and Exploitation

Honourable Committee of Experts, Equality Now has been conducting a study on Rape Laws in Africa. Under international human rights law, all states are mandated to prevent all forms of violence by adopting legislation that equivocally criminalizes all forms of violence against women and girls. We have noted, with great concern, that various countries have a very low age of consent, ranging from 11 years in Nigeria to 12 years in Equatorial Guinea and 14 years in Madagascar. Children are vulnerable due to their level of maturity and, further, can be at the mercy of adults who may take advantage of existing power dynamics and subject them to sexual conduct without them providing informed, free and willful consent. The low age of sexual consent will likely lead to children’s right to education being impacted due to teenage pregnancies. We strongly urge the Committee to impress upon Madagascar to ratify the Maputo Protocol and subsequently for all African states to reform their rape laws to raise the age of consent to 18 years and provide harsher penalties to ensure the deterrence of sexual violence as a whole. 

Ratification of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to Enhance Protection of Children Rights in South Sudan

Equality Now commends the Government of South Sudan for ratifying the Maputo Protocol in June 2023. This offers protection to the rights of school-going girls, who continue to experience numerous human rights violations such as forced marriage, abduction and kidnapping, defilement and discrimination, supported by harmful customary practices, patriarchal attitudes and impunity.

We urge the Committee to call on the government of South Sudan to do the following:

1. Ratify the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child;
2. Ensure the Permanent Constitution that is currently under development clearly defines the marriageable age in line with the Children’s Charter and the Maputo Protocol;
3. Prioritise the enactment of the Anti-GBV Bill and the Family Law Bill, which have progressive provisions on violence, marriage, and the protection of the girl child;
4. Ensure the existing legal framework, such as the Penal Code, is revised and fully implemented to punish those who commit crime and are held accountable.

Call for Malawi to Develop a National Action Plan to Address Sex Trafficking of Children

Honourable Committee of Experts, Malawi is a source, destination and transit country for trafficking. Women and girls are often trafficked within Southern Africa and to Europe and the Middle East. Malawi is also a destination country for women and girls trafficked from other parts of Africa. Traffickers often lure women and girls from their families under the pretence of prospects of job opportunities, education, or marriage. Despite Malawi enacting legislation to curb trafficking in persons, very few perpetrators are held accountable – many cases are not adequately reported, investigated, and prosecuted- failing many survivors. A lack of standardised systems and minimal funding means cases are not effectively identified nor acted upon, and victim protection systems are substandard. Therefore, Equality Now strongly urges the Committee, during its review, to consider developing recommendations to ensure the state develops budgetary, administrative, and policy measures to ensure adequate funds are set aside to fight against trafficking, to develop a clear framework for enhancing the capacity of justice actors and ensuring survivors can be able to access remedies such as compensation through the Trafficking in Persons (TIP).