CSOs in Health Sector trained on Safe abortion legal advocacy

By Elias Hakizimana.

Various Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in health sector promotion have been in Kigali for four days since May 16-19, 2023 to learn about safe abortion and its importance in reproductive healthcare while conducting advocacy.

The values clarification training was organized by Ihorere Munyarwanda Organisation (IMRO) under the coalition of CSOs working on health sector promotion, bringing together the members of Health Development Initiative (HDI), Rwanda NGOs Forum in Health Promotion (RNGOF), Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD), Medical Doctors for Choice and Strive Foundation Rwanda.

The purpose of this values clarification training was to provide staff with a clear understanding of safe abortion and its importance in reproductive healthcare, with a focus on providing information on the human rights perspective of abortion and exposing myths and misconceptions surrounding abortion and also have an understanding of the legal and policy frameworks surrounding abortion in the country to increase tolerance and reduce stigma among staff members towards those seeking abortion services.

According to Tom Mulisa, Executive Director of GLIHD and training facilitator, the purpose of the meeting is to equip the coalition members to understand the policy and legal framework of Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and to have more understanding on value clarification.

He said that trained coalition members as trainers of trainers will be able to transmit the acquired knowledge to the young organizations.

Mulisa explained that access to safe abortion for women and girls is still an issue in Rwanda vis-à-vis the current situation that does not allow to access this service at the nearest health facility.

“They have to go to the district hospital, which is usually far, we hope that in the future the service could be accessed at the health center level which is near the population and also we will be having mid-level providers to provide the service at the health center,” he said.

The training is expected to leave CSOs with an understanding of safe abortion as a human right and the legal and policy frameworks surrounding abortion in the country, they will also be able to identify myths and misconceptions surrounding abortion and address them appropriately.

Coalition members takeaway

Marie Nyampinga Ishimwe, Program and Strategic Litigation Officer at HDI was among the trainees, said that the training has been an interesting session in terms of capacity building in SRHR legal frameworks.

“We tend to think that SRHR has no legal framework at both national, regional and international levels, it was important to know how many conventions, how many charters are available at the international level, we tend to know that there are conventions on women’s rights, child rights but without going deeper. It was important to me to know about what the African charter says about how to provide information to young people about SRHR, which is also in our national laws.” she said.

Muhozi Gatete, one of the coalition members from Strive Foundation Rwanda in charge of monitoring and evaluation and communication specialist, said that the training was important as he managed to learn about what Rwanda has done in terms of ratifications of some conventions about Sexual Reproductive health.

“With other coalition members, we have tried to figure out the gaps within ourselves in relation to SRHR and we are still learning, so, the outcomes of this training are positive ones, it will give us more capacity and more power to add on what we have been doing and will help us in the effective implementation of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights,” Gatete said.

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