One of the things we are doing at HelpAge International is using existing human rights mechanisms to influence national policy. We collate evidence and experience generated from our and our partners’country programmes and present it, along with recommendations for government action, at the international level.
Today, I delivered an oral statement on older women’s rights in Tanzania on behalf of HelpAge International and 12 other Tanzanian NGOs that are working on older women’s rights. This is the third time that HelpAge International has submitted evidence to the Committee that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Our previous submissions on Mozambique and Bolivia were successful in ensuring the Committee made recommendations to the respective governments on how they can better protect older women’s rights. Now it is the turn of the Government of Tanzania, which is reporting this week on their record of implementing the Convention.
The CEDAW Committee is incredibly open and responsive to the input from NGOs, in particular national and local ones. Today was no exception and there were a number of NGOs from the various countries highlighting women’s rights in their countries. Five minutes is not long for a statement but it is enough to make the key points.
As well as making an oral statement we have submitted written evidence and recommendations on three key areas of violations of older women’s rights: gender-based violence as a result of witchcraft accusations; their exclusion from HIV and AIDS programmes and services despite their pivotal role as carers of sick adults and vulnerable children; and, the discriminatory inheritance laws which impact hugely on them in the event of widowhood.
We now look forward to Friday when the Committee questions the Tanzanian Government delegation and hope they do not ignore the very real discrimination that older women are experiencing.
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Hi Brigitte,
You are doing great work. I think the these kinds of submissions- oral or written- will help build a critical mass of public opinion to challenge African states to view accusations of witchcraft and actions following thereof as substantive violations of human rights, as opposed to, because of the deep cultural/traditional roots of the practice, as subsidiary or minor violations. To view witchcraft accusations as such and, therefore, continue to drag our feet in legislating against the practice, is to condone the extremely violent actions that follow accusations of witchcraft. Incidents such as the killing of 11 elder persons accused of witchcraft in Western Kenya in May will continue to make a mockery of our commitment to various national and international human rights conventions. Tee Ngugi, HAI-ARDC
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