The condition of Nigerien women combines poverty and extreme vulnerability. There are disparities between men and women particularly concerning their legal status.
What is CEDAW?
CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Discriminations Against Women) is a major document adopted by UNO. It aims at eradicating any behaviour and practice, or any distinction, exclusion or preference based on gender, which leads to discrimination against women to men’s advantage.
Niger adopted it with reservations. Niger didn’t adopt the legislation on minimum legal age for marriage, on equality between men and women in inherited property rights, on the right to choose one’s residence or the number of one’s children. Niger doesn’t acknowledge to men and women equal rights and responsibilities in deciding freely and knowingly the number and timing of births, the right to choose the family name. Niger doesn’t acknowledge to men and women equal rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution.
Understanding CEDAW better.
On the occasion of the 2009 Women’s Day celebrated on March 8th, Tarbiyya Tatali pledges :
to inform Nigerien men and women about CEDAW articles.
to get the Nigerien state to lift its reservations.
To that end, we published a major document entitled ‘For a Better Understanding Of the Convention on the Elimination of all Discriminations Against Women’ in two versions :
Those documents will be instrumental in experimenting the propagation of CEDAW in the Dosso region through reading material which highlights women’s rights and is aimed at literate adults. The booklets contain a translation of the thirty articles of the convention in Haoussa and Djerma, with illustrations in keeping with Nigerien realities.
That operation involves literacy groups and community radios, to ensure better knowledge of CEDAW in rural areas, it also aims at encouraging a process leading the Nigerien authorities to lift their reservations concerning the Convention.
The two reference documents were completed thanks to the Gender Equality Support Fund and to technical support from the Ministry of Woman and Child Protection, the local Ministry of Education services and the United Nations Fund for the People.
Tarbiyya Tatali is able to translate CEDAW in the other Niger languages, and wishes to get support from partners interested in widening the circulation of CEDAW both in rural and urban areas.
See the article published in Sahel Dimanche on March 6th 2009.