Violence: 65% of women in Central Africa are victims

Important international instruments for the protection of human rights, while at the same time continuing to deplore violence against women.

Why does Africa badly protect its women?

Today, right and body have an obvious relation, erected in universal value: that of the intrinsic right of property of woman over her body. The denial of this right condemns human degradation and reduces the status of slavery. To be born a woman in Africa, the land of the preponderance of patriarchy, archaic customs and traditions, and the mass of religious misinterpretations, is neither of a nature to recognize this right nor to curb the relentless and sometimes spontaneous arbitrariness the women. The cultural heritage is decidedly cumbersome: the position of inferiority of women goes as an "in-itself", and the act of violence is "normalized".

In addition to the social and cultural burdens, there is also the continent's underdevelopment of the economy, which aggravates the situation of women, especially in rural areas, where they are generally illiterate, placed in a position of economic dependence, which leaves them no option Than to stay with a husband who violates them, but who can at least provide them with a roof and food.

Read the article "Rape a Weapon of Terror" on the atrocities committed in the DRC and whose book Dr. Mukwege discusses in detail the impacts on an entire generation

As a violation of the right to physical and moral integrity, and sometimes even the right to life, violence against women will be the subject of a number of binding treaties, Most countries will ratify. These include the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women of 2003 In parallel with this, specific national laws will be adopted in the same direction. Which gives a considerable legislative corpus, but which has obviously been a failure, since its prescriptions will not be systematically applied.

Some will admit that even the most avant-garde laws would remain dead letters in the absence of a genuine rule of law, understood in the sense of an independent and impartial justice, in addition to a peaceful alternation to power. However, the rule of law is far from being achieved on the continent, particularly in view of the multiplication of military coups, but above all of constitutional coups d'état, supported by a large number of leaders To amend the Constitution of their country to run for more presidential terms.