Source: Zambia Daily Mail
WHILE gender issues elicit a wide array of emotions the proposal to replace 'Free men we stand' with 'Freely we stand' in the chorus of Zambia's national anthem is set to get more tongues wagging.
With the launch and circulation of the Draft Constitution many interest groups have brought up areas of debate and contention to ensure that the highest law of the land is protective and representative of the people's aspirations.
"The new constitution should reflect gender components that will best ensure equal women representation," says Charity Musamba, a representative of the Gender Sector Working Group, "it must include key gender priorities that the women's movement has strived for in the past decade."
Apart from changing the half-century old lyrics, the working group also wants the 'He' term dropped all together from the constitution with all references to an individual reading as 'she/he'.
Dr Musamba says that the Constitution draft-making process offers Zambia a unique opportunity to realise the aspirations of the women movement to address various issues that have weighed heavily on the backs of mothers and daughters regarding health, education, access to employment and land rights.
She said that the poor performance of women in the September 2011 elections led the different agencies dealing with women empowerment issues to reflect on the social and legal barriers to female participation on the political domain despite women representing over half of the electorate.
Gender issues are generally perceived to be a "women's issue", but with women representing half the population very little is done to ensure their participation and representation in decision-making as regards budget allocations and setting of the development agenda.
The working group, that comprised representatives drawn from the civil society, public and private sector, non-governmental and faith-based organisations and political parties, adopted minimum standards for the proposed national constitution that would ensure a gender-sensitive document.
The group felt that a gender-sensitive Constitution should have language that is appropriate with wording avoiding strong male reference and that all forms of gender-biased discrimination be removed.
Despite strides being made in ensuring gender balance, Zambia still lags behind in eliminating discrimination of women and a lot of gender stereo-typing remains, with girls often being barred from attaining basic education in preference to them doing menial jobs.
Also the disturbing trend of gender-based violence against girls and women means much more needs to be done to create a nation that accords protection to all its citizens.
Zambia is a party to the Convention of Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Millenium Development Goals but women's representation is still below the proposed 30 percent.
Fortunately, the women's movement political will towards empowering women has been demonstrated with the recent establishment of the Ministry of Gender and Child Development and appointment of women to various key ministerial positions and other high-ranking positions across the diplomatic and law enforcement wings.
Minister of Gender and Child Development, Inonge Wina, has stated that the previous constitutional review processes had failed to yield a definitive and comprehensive legal statement on women's formal and substantive equality despite Zambia being a signatory and party to most of the major UN and regional instruments on women's rights.
The minister said it was vital for the highest law in the land to enshrine gender equality values and principles that enable both men and women to participate and benefit from the development processes at all levels.
"It is important to harness the talents, human capital and economic potential of women", she said, "when we have a just and equal society, we will then have better development outcomes that benefit both men and women; we will experience faster poverty reduction as well as accelerated progress.
Ms Wina said she was impressed by the women's movement active participation in developing a position paper on the draft Constitution and the support rendered by donors.
"I would like to thank our co-operating partners, particularly the United Nations Development Programme, embassies of Norway, Ireland and the Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands for being supportive and instrumental in providing financial support through my ministry to the women's movements efforts to scrutinise the Draft constitution and come up with a position paper that will be submitted to the Technical Committee on Drafting the Zambian constitution," she said.
Ms Wina said the public should take advantage of the Constitution-making process to ensure equality between women and men, girls and boys, and the enjoyment and participation in economic, social, cultural, civil and political development process.
She said she was also determined to ensure the implementation of the fundamental principles inherent in the CEDAW, UN convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the rights of Women in Africa, African charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration on Development Goals.
Zambia may have recorded a first with the appointment of a female inspector general of the Police in Stella Libongani but it has also seen violent attacks on women and the girl child spiraling out of control.
Gender stereotyping and cultural norms have continued to see women relegated to the kitchen and remaining voiceless but the proposals in the new Constitution would see more women being appointed to offices of authority, ensuring positions in local governance structures and access to funding for development programmes.
The working group has welcomed the proposed Article 73 of the Draft constitution that recommends the establishment of a Gender Equality Commission which will be mandated to ensure that a gender equality agenda is maintained.
Affirmative action would see a provision for 50/50 representation in the executive, judiciary and legislature and it has been proposed that if the President is male then the Vice-President must be female.
The position paper also states: "the Electoral Act shall provide that all political parties adopt an equal number of male and female candidates at all levels (presidential, parliamentary and local government) failure to which they shall be disqualified. This requirement shall also apply to the public and private sectors."
What is to be seen is whether the proposed clauses are adopted as debate has been raised over the introduction of a deliberate quota system that would see more women represented in decision-making positions but action is yet to be effected.
Dr Musamba said the list of gender issues had been growing since Zambia gained Independence in 1964, but for the first time there was an opportunity to have a gender-sensitive and empowering Constitution to help realise the expectations of the people of Zambia.