Posted Date: May 20, 2002
International Community Must Support Rwandan Women’s Efforts Towards Democracy, Equality
International Community Must Support Rwandan Women’s Efforts Towards Democracy, Equality
By Mary Balikungeri
Five years ago, as the world’s women met in Beijing to discuss promoting women’s rights and gender equality, we in Rwanda were coming out of a genocide. More than 800,000 people had been killed, and refugees were streaming back by the millions. Our country’s infrastructure had been destroyed and many of our cultural norms were being questioned. Our new government was just starting at the time of the Beijing conference. We wondered what Beijing could do for Rwanda’s women in such a situation.
Five years later, it has become apparent that the Beijing conference’s Platform for Action has had a very positive influence on the Rwandan government and on Rwandan women. Since adopting the Platform for Action, the Government of Rwanda has taken steps to ensure that the realities of women’s lives are more explicitly addressed in the planning and policy-making processes designed to confront the social challenges. While the results are mixed, as in most places, the Rwandan government is doing extremely well compared to other African countries and given the history of this country.
Some gains are notable. Rwanda's women and girls, now 54 percent of the population, have been active in rebuilding our society, both the physical infrastructure and the social fabric. The government of national unity named 17 women to the 70-member appointed Parliament, including three women ministers, four general secretaries, and a newly appointed woman, A. Cyanzayire, head of Gacaca (participative justice). Women parliamentarians pushed through a revision to the inheritance laws that for the first time allows women to inherit property from fathers and husbands. This means that the many women who head families as the result of our genocide will now have the resources to care for their children. Rape as a crime against humanity is being taken more seriously and has been moved up from category four (for crimes such as theft) to category one (serious offenses).
Our Minister of Gender and Development, Angeline Muganza, has helped set up Women’s Committees in every village to give a voice to the women elected and open a channel of communication with the government. In addition, Women’s Organizations, together with the Commission on Unity and Reconciliation headed by Aloyisia Inyumba, will strengthen a women’s network to bridge the gap among the ethinic divisions.
But we Rwandan women recognize that we have a very long way to go. Only 28 percent of Rwandan women are literate, compared to 58 percent of the men. Our country is so desperately poor that one in five of us still lives under plastic sheeting in refugee-like conditions. We are so densely populated that land holdings are tiny and insufficient, and government services like water, transport and family planning clinics don’t begin to reach everyone.
The Beijing Platform for Action noted that many women’s needs would require international help, and this is very true in Rwanda. International relief agencies have been providing shelter, relocation and health services that match our government’s total budget, but their emergency services are now ending and we can only pray that development assistance will pick up the slack.
But so far that hasn’t happened. Of $10 million pledged to the United Nations three years ago by donor nations for the urgent needs of Rwandan women, only $5.7 million has been raised. As a result, efforts to achieve women’s equality languish. Donor nations simply did not fulfill their promises, and Rwanda's women suffer as a result.
Similarly, world outrage over the genocide led to establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and it declared rape to be a crime of war. But only two men have so far been sentenced for their crimes. Bitterness festers among the thousands of Rwandan women whose attackers remain unpunished.
Most of all, the international community should listen to Rwandan women who are playing a role in peace-building processes. Women are leading the way in bringing grassroots communities together with the hope of developing a more democratic society.
Right now, we see little sign that our pleas are being taken seriously. Five years from now, when we review "Beijing Plus Ten," we hope that the women of Rwanda and world over will be able to bring you better news.
Mary Balikungeri is the coordinator of the Rwanda Women’s Network, a service and development organization in Kigali, Rwanda, and a regional coordinator of Women as Partners for Peace in Africa, WOPPA. [See the March 27 issue of Monday Developments for an article on WOPPA.]
|
