AFRICA: Shining a Light on Women's Rights

How does a woman challenge deeply entrenched cultural practices to convince her husband, her brother or father that she can demand equal rights?

This is the question facing many women across Africa today, especially in rural areas where high levels of illiteracy have kept many girls and their mothers "in the dark" when it comes to civil liberties.

It might sound like an uphill battle, but African activists at this week's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York are proving that defying, and even transforming, the status quo can be done.

"We are giving women the dignity to claim their rights and those of their children and relatives," Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) representative Bernice Sam told a forum at this week's CSW.

"And we're working with different religions; Muslims and Christians alike."

Since 2009, WILDAF has spearheaded a campaign that is working with women across Africa, with particular focus on peasant farmers in five countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.

The programme involves training Legal Literacy Volunteers (LLVs), who go on to spread the word about democratic and human rights, through public seminars, illustrated brochures, and radio and TV initiatives.

More than 8000 women have benefited from the public awareness campaign so far, using their newfound knowledge to fight domestic violence, assert property rights, and even contest candidacy in local elections.

The success of WILDAF's approach is that they not only target women, but also involve local men, police, government leaders, judges, traditional leaders, teachers, civil society, and even the military, in their training and mediation.

Tete Akou Laetitia, a young female farmer from the Kloto region of Togo, is among those to have benefited from the campaign.

Before contacting WILDAF Laetitia and her sisters were denied property inheritance rights by their brother - however the women were unaware that they could lawfully challenge their situation.

"Since my father Tete Afawuso's death my elder brother Tete Kokou hoarded his properties for himself. He made a housing estate on the land and sold a large part of it," Laetitia said.

"As for us, the heiresses, no action for recovery of property coming from us could be envisaged, since according to the custom we do not have any inheritance rights on our late father's properties," she said. "Yet when our father was alive he cherished us all and did not make any distinction between his children. I was upset by the situation but did not know which way to turn."

After hearing about WILDAF's initiative Laetitia went along to a seminar and learnt about Togo's laws, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

This empowered her to approach her brother to negotiate the proper division of the land between the siblings.

After enlisting the help of WILDAF's paralegals and the traditional authorities of the village - who mediated the exchange - each heir was granted equal parts of the inheritance property.

Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, president of WILDAF West Africa, told IPS that Laetita's story was an example of how traditional rulers and local men had taken well to the group's campaign.

"Every time we go on the ground to do our monitoring visits and when we discuss [our campaign] with local men, they are so happy with it," she said.

"Two days before we left for this year's CSW we went to Ghana to visit a village and we heard a traditional chief saying: ‘what this programme has brought to us is peace and cooperation. We are ready to work with the women'," Adjamagbo-Johnson explained. "In some areas, where traditional rulers usually solve disputes in the village, they have even invited our women trainers to join the process."

According to WILDAF, educating women on human rights laws raises awareness about the fact that unhappy or violent situations are not "unchanging as a condition from God".

When women and girls are empowered, they are more likely to stand up and say no to discrimination, Adjamagbo-Johnson said, even in societies that are traditionally patriarchal.

To date, WILDAF has trained more than 250 LLVs under their programme and these volunteer paralegals have gone on to create village committees in which both men and women work together to fight against the violation of human rights.

With less than one year until the programme wraps up, Adjamagbo-Johnson said the volunteer women had already gone above and beyond their expectations.

"I must confess that we have been surprised ourselves at the impact of our work," she said.