African countries urged to respect agreements signed on women and girls’ rights protection

African countries urged to implement the agreements ratified on respecting the rights of women and girls across the continent.

The call was made yesterday February 19, 2018 at Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia during the two-day summit aiming at evaluating how women’s and girls’ rights are respected.

The emphasis was given to rural women’s involvement in income generating works.

It remains three weeks for the United Nations Summit to be held in the United States of America and African women will participate and rise up the same issue at the global level in regard with gender equity and equality.

Dinah Musindarwezo Executive, Director of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) said the summit is to evaluate the achievements in respecting the rights of women and girls before they go for the upcoming sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 62)  that will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 12 to 23 March 2018.

“African women’s rights are not respected especially those from rural areas. Examples are forced marriages, lack of access to income generating works, instead they are there to give birth and cook. Girls deserve rights to education like their brothers because they are also able to perform at school, women can be good business dealers as long as they are empowered,”said  Musindarwezo.

She also noted that most of African women do not equitably share and manage financial income with their husbands, which also remains a threat among others.

“We also request our member-countries to fight against such financial –based inequalities between women and their husbands. It is the reason why we wrote a letter to His Excellency President of the Republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame since he started his responsibilities to head the African Union (AU), requesting him to facilitate women in preparing their future and equip them with leadership skills as Rwandan women do at this moment,” Musindarwezo noted.

She further said that the member states should back on the international agreement they signed and try to implement them before participating to the UN Summit.

Other issues they raised during the summit include education for all, road infrastructure facilities, water and electricity facilities, school availability and family planning among others.

The summit will give out the recommendations which will be handed to the UN during the CSW 62 in March. It will gather African countries with AU member states and non-governmental organizations to emphasize on the respect of women and girls’ rights.

By Scovia Mutesi @theinspirerpubl