The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mary Nawai, has called on female parliamentarians to unite in order to push for the ratification of the Maputo Protocol by the government of South Sudan to hand women equal rights with men.
Nawai was addressing the female MPs during a training workshop to sensitise the national legislators on the protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the rights of women in Africa so as to push for its total ratification.
She stated that if ratified, the protocol will result in tangible decisions for society, not just for women.
“This Maputo protocol will give us an equal opportunity, equal rights as human beings. To have a peaceful society, there is a need to ratify the protocol so that every citizen will have the right to advocate for women and girls, as well as men and boys,’’ she emphasised.
Nawai stressed that it is the responsibility of the female legislators and civil society to push for the ratification of the protocol to be assented into law by President Salva Kiir.
She said this requires the unity of the women parliamentarians like their counterparts on the continent where the protocol has been ratified.
“It has been said for many years [that] some of us who have been in parliament for many years are just there warming the chairs. So our people are almost losing trust and hope in us, but if there are things that we are going to do, we will win the trust of our people, ” she urged the legislators.
“As we represent our respective constituencies, where people are in need of peace, education, clean water, the right to marry at a reasonable age, not marrying a child at the age of 10 or 15 years, and also where people need access to equal justice, freedom from torture and instability; Maputo protocol addresses all these rights,” she added.
Meanwhile, Regina Osha, the director of gender and social welfare in the ministry of gender, children and social welfare, said the training to raise awareness among the female legislators was important to ensure the Maputo protocol is ratified in South Sudan.
“The importance of you being here is that, you stand for women’s rights in the parliament and you have the authority to ensure that the Maputo protocol is signed for South Sudan,” Osha urged.
Asha said the ministry of gender has been working closely with the civil society to train parliamentarians and civil servants in the government on the protocol since 2014.
“And we are very sad that to date it has not been signed and we have been following it with the consortium since 2018,” she said.
The African Union adopted the Protocol in 2003, and it went into effect in 2005. It expands the substantive protection of women’s rights in Africa, including explicit provisions for their health and reproductive rights, and complements the African Charter. The term ‘women’ in the Protocol includes girls.
States Parties are required to take all appropriate measures to “protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mother’s mental and physical health or the life of the mother or the foetus,” according to Article 14 (2) (c) of the Maputo Protocol.