Stephanie Musho (Guest Writer)
There are on average 1,300 abortions that are carried out in Kenya daily with 13-35% resulting in maternal mortality & 60% maternal morbidity. These health complications include haemorrhage, uterine perforation, organ damage, infection and sepsis among others pointing to the needless suffering women and girls often endure. This high prevalence of illness and death can significantly be reduced and ultimately ended.
But there is a growing anti-gender / anti-rights movement that counters any mitigation efforts to end this scourge on the continent. This movement largely consists of foreign organizations who use local ones as proxies to launch and sustain offensives against the security, protection and promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights of African women and girls.
Not only do these groups oppose access to safe abortion, but they also counter access to correct sexual and reproductive health information and contraception – that prevent unintended pregnancies. This is a violation of our legally binding international obligations including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Collectively referred to as the opposition, they deploy unethical tactics to curtail human rights. These include the spread of misinformation and disinformation on health rights. Consider the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a regressive anti-abortion agreement, launched four years ago that claims that there is no international right to abortion.
However, abortion is a healthcare issue that is encompassed in the Convention on the Elimination on All forms of Discrimination Against Women and more expressly in the Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action and in Africa’s comprehensive legal instrument on women’s rights – the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; or simply, the Maputo Protocol, among others.
Additionally, this right has been determined by the UN Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Sustainable Development Goals on Health and Gender Equality, further bolstered by the Pact of the Future recognize sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Just like Otto von Bismarck steered the Berlin Conference that led to the disenfranchisement of Africa; Valerie Huber, a former advisor of ex-US President, Donald Trump – a white American woman, has activated Protego. This is a mechanism to drive an ultra-conservative Western agenda on African constituencies including the expansion of the Geneva Consensus Declaration.
Protego targets African First Ladies under the guise of protecting family values to bastardize the agency and diverse value subscriptions of African women and girls. Bolstering this agenda is the fact that the anti-gender / anti-rights movement is heavily resourced and politically connected in the global north. The rising wave of fascism in Europe further strengthens her position as financing for health and development are channeled to the continent by these governments. Consequently, influencing political positions.
Kenya, which recently got elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for a 2-year term, maintains its signature on this Declaration that blatantly violates international human rights, adding to concerns on the country’s suitability to lead on these issues. The Declaration also concerningly encourages countries to solely be driven by national laws in international processes.
This goes against ongoing efforts to rebuild trust in multilateralism at global level and strengthen international cooperation. Moreover, nationalism galvanizes wars and conflicts, which breed violation of human rights including sexual and gender-based violence. Even so, the Constitution of Kenya affirms the right to health for all including reproductive health; and permits safe & legal abortion in emergency medical treatment, when life or health of mother or fetus is at risk, or in instances provided by other written law.
Therefore, the Geneva Consensus Declaration infringes on Kenya’s domestic legal framework in the first instance and the Republic must disavow it.
While the Geneva Consensus Declaration is not legally binding, it creates unnecessary legal, policy and delivery hurdles which obstruct interventions. Additionally, it sets a dangerous foundation for the establishment of international norms which inform international law.
There is opportunity for the country to rebuild its reputation in international affairs as a trusted pan-African leader that upholds human rights and does not allow its territory to be mutilated as a battleground for foreign agenda. Also – and more urgently, an opportunity to save its women and girls from suffering preventable illness and deaths. Kenya must therefore depart from mere public relations at a foreign policy position, and ensure its domestic laws and policies align with international laws and standards – not only on paper but also in practice.
Stephanie Musho is a human rights lawyer and a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute.
