Source: Guardian
"We know that the African Union summit is still very masculine but we are trying to bring in the voices of women," said Gertrude Mongella, former president of the Pan-African parliament, explaining the rationale behind the shadow summit organised by the Gender is my Agenda Campaign (Gimac) in Addis Ababa on 24-26 January. A difficult proposition in a forum where, at the very highest level, there is only one female representative, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia.

 

The women gathered here, including Elisabeth Rehn, Finland's first female defence minister, and former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson were truly on the margins, tucked away in the UN headquarters across town from where the preliminary AU summit meetings were taking place. Using the summit's theme of "shared values" as a starting point for discussion, the Gimac meeting deliberated on the elimination of violence against women, gender and climate change, female participation in the economy, and women's involvement in peace and security issues, focusing on the situation in Ivory Coast.

The question constantly asked was: "Are women's rights part of the values of the African Union?" Certainly, the AU has made some bold statements in this area, for example, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (2004) and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003). And, at the highest level, the AU has achieved gender parity: five of the eight commissioners are women (although the three top jobs – chairperson, deputy chairperson and commissioner for peace and security – are all held by men).

But creating policy documents and placing women in visible positions in continental bodies, while laudable, has not so far translated into benefits at the grassroots. The fact that the literacy rate for men in Sierra Leone is almost twice that of women; that 143 out of 1,000 women in Niger will die in pregnancy or shortly after giving birth; and that only 17% of women across the continent are represented in parliament shows that female equality is still a long way off in Africa.

One of the most pressing issues of concern for the continent is the use of sexual violence as a political tool and a weapon of war. The UN estimates that at least 160 women are being raped every week in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and there have been reports of sexual assault being used to intimidate voters in the recent elections in Ivory Coast. The importance of this problem was underscored by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, his special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Margot Wallström, and the head of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet – all of whom attended the AU summit.

Citing the Bosnian rape camps in the 1990s and the current situation in Haiti, Wallström pointed out that this is not a new phenomenon, or one that is peculiar to Africa, but she stressed that it is an issue which African leaders have to take responsibility for, and work to eliminate it. A crucial step in this has to be the empowerment of women. "We have to give them [women] a role and a voice, and a place at the decision-making table," she said. "There should be no peace negotiations without women present at the table because there can be no peace unless we have peace also for women."

Which is precisely what Gimac is calling for in the case of Ivory Coast. But the AU decision to form a high-level panel of African presidents to mediate in that country has ensured that women will not be central to the talks.

According to Mongella, "The African mentality is that the woman is only good as silver, not as gold." Until these attitudes change, women will remain on the margins, struggling to have their voices heard.