| Statement By Seodi White and Mary Malunga To the Committee For The Elimination Of Discrimination Against Women On the Occasion of The submission of the Combined Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Periodic Report Of The Republic Of Malawi.
Madame Chair, I’m Seodi White, I speak on behalf of Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Educational Trust Malawi , Centre For Human Rights and Rehabilitation and The National Association Of Business Women. We are presenting five critical Issues relating to the Discrimination of Women in my Country. I will present the four and my colleague Mary Malunga will present the last one.
The following are the issues:
- Misconceptualisation of Gender and Development Conceptual Framework as a Means Of Achieving Gender Equality.
The Malawi Government has tasked the Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services to spearhead the formulation of Laws, Policies and Programmes aimed at bringing equalities between men and women in Malawi . This Ministry has adopted the Gender and Development Conceptual Framework as an approach to do this.
However despite the fact that the Government has ratified the CEDAW Convention and therefore recognises that discrimination against women in Malawi exists, the government has constantly referred to GAD as an approach to advance the rights of women, men, boys and girls and other vulnerable groups .This thinking has permeated critical national instruments such as the National Gender Policy and Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. For example in the National Gender Policy (which expired in 2005), the goal of the policy is defined to:
“mainstream gender in the national development process to enhance the participation of women, men, boys and girls for sustainable and equitable development for poverty eradication”.
This statement appears to deny that participation is particularly problematic for women and girls due to their subordinate status. Understandably the end result of any gender planning exercise is to achieve equality of the sexes. Any strategy formulated to achieve this goal should clearly recognise that the battle is the emancipation of women and therefore the end result is the equality of the sexes. The construction of the goal in this particular instance appears as if the problem of lack of participation relates to the whole society.
The lack of clear statement by the government regarding women’s disadvantaged position in the country and the need to focus on women as a category group is unfortunate. This has undermined efforts to advance women in particular in matters relating to transfer of resources.
Recommendation
The government needs to regroup and reanalyse the meaning and concept of the GAD approach in partnership with all necessary State Actors and recommit to advance women’s status.
The Government of Malawi is currently undergoing a Constitutional review process. This is the first time that this has happened since its formulation in 1994. It is therefore a very important process and a great opportunity to improve on the deficiencies of the Constitution with regards to women. We have noted that the government through the Ministry of Gender has taken a back seat in the process particularly in the provision of progressive recommendations. For example in its presentation to the Constitutional Review conference, the government through the Ministry of Gender highlighted that it did not support the recognition and therefore protection of cohabiting relations. It is our opinion that this family grouping is most vulnerable to domestic violence and other rights violations and it is unfortunate that the Ministry did not regard this family unit as important.
Further, to this the Constitution itself is inundated with problems relating to gender issues and these have not been ably dealt with by the Ministry.
Some of the problems relating to the Constitution are as follows:
- The Constitution currently imposes an obligation on the State to actively promote the welfare and development of the people of Malawi by progressively adopting and implementing policies and legislation aimed at, (among other things), achieving public trust and good governance.
The Constitution has no mechanisms in place to ensure that government is accountable to its citizens in ensuring that de jure equality moves from realm of mere rhetoric to de facto equality. The Constitutional provisions that require government to fulfil some critical obligations are not self executing. This means that it is therefore difficult for citizens to effectively make the State accountable for its fiduciary duties.
The absence of a self executing provision becomes an obstacle that makes it difficult for women to claim their citizenship rights by demanding answers from the State.
- Second, though the Constitution embodies the principle of equality, Constitution is silent on temporary measures that can be taken to accelerate gender equality. Therefore it does not compensate for past gender imbalances. This is important in the light of the fact that before 1994 Malawi was an autocratic State and women were most affected.
To signify commitment to the full realisation of the Constitutional principles of equality and non discrimination, the government should take advantage of the Constitutional review process by:
- Amending the Constitution to clearly place a duty on the State to take tangible steps towards the significant realisation of its various obligations. The provision should make the failure of the State to show a significant progressive realisation of its duties actionable by individuals or any other private and public institutions.
- The Government should ensure that the Constitution recognises that pragmatic gender equality will mainly be achieved by taking deliberate legal steps NOW to address past imbalances that have been created by culture, tradition and history in all sectors of society.
- Discriminatory Legislation
The Citizenship Act of Malawi provides that upon marrying a foreign man, the Malawian woman will lose her right to a Malawian citizenship of her husband on the first anniversary of marriage. It further provides that the children of a Malawian woman by a foreign husband cannot be Malawian Citizens by virtue of their mother being Malawian. However a Malawian male in a similar situation does not face such a problem.
The above provision of the Citizenship Act represents the ultimate form of gender discrimination. In this instance the Malawian woman is treated like a minor and denied her right to acquire and retain citizenship as per the Constitution. Her freedom of choice in marriage is limited. Let alone upon such marriages, her freedom to reside in her country of birth is curtailed. Her freedom of movement is also curtailed, as she will not be secure in her residing in Malawi or anywhere else. This Act is degrading to Malawian women.
Recommendations for Government Action
The government of Malawi should immediately repeal this section of the citizenship Act and recognise the inherent right women have to pass their citizenship to their children and spouses regardless of origin.
The Wills and Inheritance Law
Dispossession of Widows In Malawi is a serious problem. It is a prevailing practice in Malawi whereby relatives of a deceased husband take property of their relative at the expense of the widow and children. The act of dispossession is conducted in many ways which include grabbing, seizing, diverting or disposing of deceased property. The most widely used term is ‘property grabbing’. The assumption is usually that the property was acquired by the deceased relative. The dispossession of widows infringes upon widows right to acquire and own property. The urgency of the matter is that Malawi as one of the countries deeply affected by the HIV/ AIDS pandemic. Due to the prevalence of the pandemic and the soaring death rate, both men and women are dying and creating widows and widowers.
There is slow progress in passing the new Wills and Inheritance Bill, despite the fact that the Law Commission finalised drafting this Bill in 2004. This means that the problem of property dispossession that many widows encounter in Malawi remains unmitigated. There is no sense of urgency or emergency in dealing with this problem.
Recommendations for Government Action
Passing the New Bill on Wills and Inheritance as a Matter of Priority
The Special Law Commission has come up with a report which proposes to repeal the current Wills and Inheritance Act. The report as proposed has made good recommendations with regards to protection of widows from dispossession and therefore protection from infringement of property rights. This Report needs to be formalised into a Bill and passed into law as a matter of urgency. Although the government report has acknowledged that the current law infringes on women’s right to acquire property it fails to acknowledge the urgency of the matter and the need to amend the law accordingly.
- Health
High levels of Maternal Mortality
Malawi ’s maternal mortality rate continues to be an unacceptably high. Since 1989 it has been alarmingly increasing from 500 per 100,000 to 1800 per 100,000 live births in 2004. There is a possibility that the situation will become worse if urgent measures are not implemented to mitigate the problem.
Additionally another 62,000 to 180,000 women and girls suffer from disabilities caused by complications during pregnancy and childbirth each year. Malawi is now ranked the third highest country in the world in so far as maternal deaths are concerned.
Recommendations For Government Action
- Antenatal and delivery services should be made accessible to women. This would entail reducing the distance that women cover to the nearest health facility but also availability of trained health workers to deal with complicated obstetric conditions.
- Family planning facilities should also be accessible to all women in the reproductive age group. An extra measure should be put in place to reach out to those based in remote areas of the country
- Need for intensive recruitment of Traditional Birth Attendants and midwives as well as orienting Health Surveillance Assistants in maternal care services especially for areas where access to nearest health centres remains a challenge.
- Government needs to ensure sufficient budgetary allocations for accessible, quality and of reproductive health services in the public sector where most women receive care.
- Lack of Access to and Control over Credit by Women
Madam chair, the other critical area in Malawi pertaining to discrimination of women is the issue of lack of access to and control over credit by women. The majority of Malawian women are based in the rural areas, and 71% are illiterate. Most women do not own assets they can declare as collateral to obtain commercial loans. As a result, Malawian women remain socio-economically disempowered as they obtain endless small loan cycles (often in groups). The few that manage to graduate from the micro and small to the medium enterprise level have largely fallen back due to lack of financing for this category.
Even though the government of Malawi has established and administered various large scale credit schemes, these have been heavily politicized, with no clear and deliberate policy on percentage of women beneficiaries. Due to the fact that the government machinery has poor structures in terms of microfinance delivery and monitoring, coupled with a poor credit culture, most beneficiaries have defaulted on the loans resulting into the collapse of government-funded credit revolving funds. This has led to the denial of a critical service to those who require it most, i.e. rural poor women.
Recommendations for Government Action
- The Government of Malawi should strongly desist from political interference, and implementation of credit schemes and subcontract these to relevant and existing independent microfinance institutions that will ensure a good percentage of women beneficiaries.
- The Government of Malawi should develop a clear and deliberate policy on economic empowerment of women, with clear percentages of women to access microfinance services.
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page was last updated on July 16, 2006
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