Valerie Tucker
By Zainab Joaque
Country manager for reproduction health organisation, IPAS has called on government to renew its commitment to the women of Sierra Leone by ratifying the Maputo Protocol.
Valerie Tucker made this call at the organisation’s office at Edwards Street on Friday, whilst briefing the media on the outcome of the 57th session of the Committee on the Convention of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in Geneva, Switzerland.
She reiterated that the country was the only one in West Africa that was yet to ratify the Protocol.
“We women should be asking questions regarding the commitment our government makes on our behalf. International instruments they sign on to should be ratified and domesticated”, she said.
Sierra Leone, she argued, was still in violation of CEDAW with the 1861 law still in place, criminalising abortion.
“We do not want our women to have unsafe abortion. We need approval of the safe pregnancy bill that will provide women with post-abortion care”, she urged.
She noted that although there was huge advocacy going on with regards the ratification of the Protocol, the country was still lagging behind because the minister of gender and children’s affairs, Moijueh Kaikai, had some reservations regarding Article 5/b which calls on state parties to take all necessary legislative and other measures backed by sanctions, of all forms of female genital mutilation.
“Issues like the blanket ban on FGM are critical and need to be discussed at all levels to find an agreeable solution to it. Ratifying the Protocol does not mean domestication, we need to make laws to domesticate it”, Tucker chided.
Sierra Leone signed up to the Protocol in June 2003, and civil society organisations started lobbying for its ratification in June 2013. The Committee report on the elimination of discrimination against women applauded such groups for taking up women’s issues in Sierra Leone.
The report says that “State parties were called on to legalise abortion, at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life and/or health of the mother, or severe foetal impairment, as well as provide women with access to quality post-abortion care, especially in cases of complications resulting from unsafe abortions”.
It found out that unsafe abortion was a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity and that state parties should also remove punitive measures for women who undergo abortion.
(C) Politico 08/04/14
