To commemorate the African Women’s Day in honour of all women and girls in the continent, Ipas Nigeria Health Foundation has tasked governments in Nigeria and across Africa to domesticate the Maputo protocol which will ensure that all barriers inhibiting women and girls from exercising their rights to bodily autonomy are removed.
In a statement made available to The DailyNewswave by Ipas titled; ‘Calls for Action’ signed by its country Director, Mr Lucky Palmer is to mark the African Women’s Day in honour of all women and girls in the continent.
The Foundation, advocates for policies and law reforms that promote women’s rights and challenge harmful social norms in the communities that act as barriers to women and girls’ access to comprehensive sexual reproductive health services.
According to the foundation, this year’s theme ‘Towards the African Women’s Decade: Realizing Women’s Human Capital through accelerated social and economic development,
addressing the scourge of violence, food insecurity and good nutrition on the African continent’ resonates with the Foundation’s goal of ensuring that every woman and girl on the African Continent has the right to their bodily autonomy free from all forms of violence and discrimination.
Nigeria, it said, is a signatory to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), a framework which is indigenous to the African People and providing ways for the bodily autonomy of women and girls across Africa.
Women with well spaced children can support family livelihood, which enhances household food security.
It rated Nigeria with high incidences of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), resulting to unwanted pregnancies, which leads to unsafe abortions, contributing to the high maternal mortality rate in the country.
While reiterating its commitment to ending unsafe abortions, SGBV and providing unhindered access to contraceptives which it put at the forefront as advocates for reproductive justice at the National and State levels, the foundation appreciated governments important role in mobilizing African women on the continent and the Diaspora to rally around collective struggles for a free and prosperous African Women.
It however, congratulated the Pan-African Women’s Organization (PAWO), a specialized agency of the African Union on her 60th anniversary.