SOAWR Member, the SIHA Network, has made a Statement to the 71st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Read an extract below.
“The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA Network) was created by women activists from Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea in the mid-1990s. For the past 25 years we have held a unique position working as a feminist regional civil society network operating in the politically volatile contexts of the Greater Horn of Africa. We work through and firmly believe in the collective power of African women.
In the Horn of Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted livelihoods, as major sectors of employment were closed, and supply chains were interrupted. In Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan political tensions and inequalities further contributed to the heightened state of instability in the region. Women in this region have found themselves increasingly targeted with sexual violence during this period because of the instability, economic insecurity, erosion of the rule of law, and weakened institutions, structures, and processes.
We take this space to advocate for holding nations of the Horn of Africa accountable to their commitments to African women, as parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and to the ideals of The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol).”
