Unfriendly to girls

Discriminatory and degrading laws

The authors note that presence of discriminatory and degrading laws impacts negatively on girls. For example, in many countries girls with disabilities are referred to in law as “idiots” and “imbeciles.” There are also laws that allow perpetrators of defilement the defence of claiming they believed that the girl was older at the time of the act. Worse still, in some countries – Cameroon, for instance – if the perpetrator marries the victim, the law shields them from criminal responsibility.

The report notes that across Africa, the protection of girls from sexual violence is largely diminished by light penalties that have no deterrent effect. For example, abduction is classified only as a misdemeanour in countries including Ghana, Malawi and Uganda.

The report notes achievements such as the reduction in average prevalence of child marriage in Eastern and Southern Africa from 42% to 35% over the last ten years.

While three in ten children are married before the age of 18 in Africa, the numbers are alarmingly high in Niger (76 percent), Central African Republic (68 percent), Chad (67 percent) and more than 50 percent in Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan and Guinea.

According the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) of the 700 million women and girls worldwide who married before their 18th birthday, 125 million – about 17% – are from Africa. These are mostly in rural areas and come from the poorest segment of the population, with girls from the poorest households twice as likely to marry before the age of 18 compared to girls from the richest households, according to UNICEF 2015.

Uganda performs badly on early child marriages at 40% compared to neighbouring countries like Rwanda (Approx. 7 percent), Burundi (20 percent), Kenya (23 percent), Tanzania (31 percent) and Sudan (34 percent), and DRC 37 percent).  The worst performing country on this index is Niger at 76%.

A 17-year old Ugandan girl in S.3 told the authors of the report: “If I could change one thing about my life I would address injustices in the community or country and if given the power to bring change I would address the issue of school dropout and early marriage.”

Uganda is among countries that have adopted legislation covering all forms of trafficking in the Palermo Protocol against “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose  of exploitation”.

Other signatories are Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Zambia.

Uganda performs well on ending Female Genital mutilation because of the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act No. 5 of 2010. Uganda has an FGM prevalence rate of 10 percent or less. This is similar to Tanzania, Benin, Ghana, Togo, and Niger.

Meanwhile, FGM is almost universal in Somalia, Guinea and Djibouti, with a prevalence rate of more than 90 percent for women and girls, while in Egypt, Eritrea, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Sudan the rate is above 80 percent.

This significant variation by country is partly attributed to the varying effectiveness of enforcement efforts and initiatives to provide protection from harmful practices that breach girls’ fundamental rights.

But Uganda is listed among countries that have not enacted laws that guarantee equal inheritance rights among girls and boys.  Up to 35 countries in Africa have such laws. Other countries that have not signed are Algeria, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eswatini, The Gambia, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Tanzania.

Uganda also has no laws or policies related to retention of pregnant girls or adolescent mothers in schools. Other countries in this cohort are Angola, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Republic of), Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Niger, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, and Somalia.

There are, however, countries that have laws and policies that protect the right of pregnant girls to stay in school or resume education. These include Cabo Verde, Gabon, Côte D’Ivoire and Rwanda. Some countries have only such laws but no policy. These include Benin, DRC, Lesotho, Mauritania, Nigeria, and South Sudan.

Uganda performs relatively well on prevention of girls from engaging in hazardous work. At 17%, it is among the 10 best countries on this parameter led by Tunisia and South Africa. Ethiopia is the worst performer at 46%.

Uganda has one of the worst records for registration at birth of every girl which is not merely proof of her legal existence, but also a critical first step towards ensuring her lifelong protection and realisation of her rights.

With the exception of Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, and South Sudan, where it is simply provided for as a right or entitlement, birth registration is mandatory by law in all African countries.

But the available data suggests that gender is not necessarily a constraint to birth registration, as there is not much discrepancy between the percentages of girls and boys registered in African countries.

Universal birth registration has been attained in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius and Seychelles. A number of countries (Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Congo (Republic of), Djibouti, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali and Sao Tome and Principe) have birth registration rates of over 80 percent for both boys and girls. Ethiopia and Somalia have the lowest birth registration rates at about three percent. Uganda’s rate is 32 percent.

A just and inclusive society

“For us to create a just and inclusive society, to prosper and ensure sustainable development, we must invest in our girls,” said Graça Machel; the chairperson, International Board of Trustees, African Child Policy Forum (ACPF).

“As a mother and grandmother myself, my heart aches to see a child mother and, unfortunately, we have millions of them on this continent,” she added in a foreword to the report, “I believe this report will be a useful tool to our governments, civil society organisations, advocates for women and girls’ rights and development partners.”

“I believe that this report will catalyse government efforts to make sure that no girl suffers from malnutrition, undergoes female genital mutilation, gets a poor education, or drops out of school for lack of sanitary materials,” said ACPF Executive Director, Joan Nyanyuki.

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