"Government everywhere have an obligation to protect and advance women’s reproductive rights." These were the words of the President, Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR) Nancy Northup, in an interview with The Nation.
The Centre, based in the United States has been in existence since 1992. It is said to have the remarkable quality of being the only organisation that focuses on using advocacy and litigation to advance the reproductive health and rights of women both at national level and international level.
Speaking about its work, CRR, Nancy revealed has brought many cases before the international treaty management bodies like the Human Right Committee that monitor the civil and political rights conventions. "We also have bodies like European Court for Human Rights who handle cases and focuses on women whose rights were being violated in one way or the other by government of their country", she said.
She traced the problem of women which was based on the premise that women are regarded as subordinate in the African context in many ways. "This has profound impact on women generally. It ranges from their part as to food within the family where the girl is being denied so that the boy will have enough food to eat, and the area of access to education where the girl child stays at home while the boy child is sent to school. These transcends through all their lives where the girl child may not be able to choose who to marry and even when she is married may not be allowed to own property and if she loses her spouse may not have rights to any inheritance; and these things are very much part of African context. It is almost as if it is unfortunate to be born a woman", she lamented.
She therefore called on activists, academics, government, policy makers all over the world to see to the women’s reproductive rights and health. "The thing is that a woman that is pregnant is not sick and there is no reason why she should die while giving birth.
In the developed world the incidence of maternal death is very rare, but in African context, it is a regular occurrence. And when questions are asked, it become obvious that women die for medical reasons, yes; but also for the subordinate status placed on them throughout their lives, for instance, a woman who have obstructivelabour may be as a result of malnutrition or as a result of being under aged – resulting from child marriage. There are women who die because of lack of facilities to manage emergency situations. There are also women who die as a result of unsafe abortion. The connection between reproductive health and right and maternal death is direct and cannot be separated," she said.
One of the solution she said is for women to be educated, "they need to get informed, they need to know what their basic human rights are and what obligations do their government have for them. They need to know that it is important for them to ask of healthcare when they are pregnant and that no one should determine ahead of time about the complications during the delivery. They should register for antenatal, see the doctor when they should. They should eat well while pregnant and advice other women to do the same".
Speaking further, "Women should realise that it is their right to have access to reproductive healthcare and work with others to make those rights real: to tell the government that it is not a gift for government to give the healthcare they deserved."
The Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR) is an international non governmental organisation based in New York which uses the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental right that all government are legally obligated to protect, respect and fulfil. CRR uses international human rights law to advance the reproductive freedom of women, the centre has strengthen reproductive health laws and policies across the globe by working with more than 150 organisation 45 nations including countries in Africa, Asia, East Central Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Source: The Nation, 31 August 2008