Nelly Neema, LWF Gender Advisor, in discussion with a farmers group during a field visit in Gally Anoui, Chad. Funded by GAC, the "Gender Transformative Climate Adaptation" is implemented by LWF in the Lake Chad Basin, covering regions in both Cameroon and Chad. Photo: LWF/ M. Renaux
Chadian women's rights defenders raise issues at CEDAW briefing
(LWI) - A multitude of laws against gender-based violence are useless if they are not implemented: Two Chadian civil society representatives called for urgent action to uphold women’s rights in Chad during a pre-session briefing ahead of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) review of their country.
Nelly Nzuri Neema, LWF Gender Advisor for a cross-border project in the Lake Chad region, and Epiphanie Nodjikoua Dionrang, president of the Chadian League for Women’s Rights, highlighted the violence that women and girls in Chad face, from harmful practices like female genital mutilation and early marriage to systemic impunity for perpetrators and lack of access to justice.
Language of rights only to attract funding
“In Chad, there’s a multitude of laws meant to address gender-based violence, but in practice, they’re not enforced at all,” Dionrang said. “One example is female genital mutilation. Government officials publicly call it a crime and claim perpetrators should be punished. Yet when they return to their villages, they call it a tradition and part of the culture,” she explained.
The very men who make the laws are the ones upholding the practices those laws are supposed to end.
Epiphanie Dionrang, Chadian League of Women
“When they seek international funding, they speak the language of rights. But on the ground, they defend harmful and retrograde customs. The very men who make the laws are the ones upholding the practices those laws are supposed to end,” Dionrang added.
Nzuri Neema, who works on an LWF climate adaptation project in the Lake Chad region, drew attention to the disproportionate burden women carry in the context of climate change, conflict, and economic inequality. As many domestic chores fall to the women, finding food, water and firewood in times of diminishing natural resources adds to their burden.
Saname Oftadeh (LWF Global Grants Manager), Epiphanie Djonrang, Nelly Nzuri Neema and Sikhonzile Ndlovu (from left) at a side event on women’s rights during the Human Rights Council. Photo: LWF/ C. Kästner-Meyer
As the decrease of arable land and grazing ground fuels intercommunal conflicts, women’s bodies become the battleground for unspeakable violence, Nzuri Neema adds. "They come into the villages and kill women and children. Rape is used as a weapon before the women are killed,” she says. "Communities flee, leaving behind their land.”
More than symbolic participation
The delegates emphasized the need to ratify the Maputo Protocol, ensure access to reproductive health services, and address the exclusion of women from real decision-making processes. “We explained that women are often only symbolically included in decision-making. Their words are not considered; they have no decision-making power,” Nzuri Neema added.
Women are often only symbolically included in decision-making. Their words are not considered; they have no decision-making power.
Nelly Nzuri Neema, LWF Gender Advisor Cross-Border project, Lake Chad
The testimony which Neema and Djonrang presented at the CEDAW briefing comes from a collective shadow report which LWF assembled with other local partner organizations in Chad.
“The CEDAW is a vital human rights framework for the LWF, closely aligned with our values of non-discrimination and dignity for all” says Sikhonzile Ndlovu, LWF Senior Advocacy Officer for Gender Justice. “Engaging with the CEDAW empowers local advocates to bring pressing gender justice issues to the global arena, compelling governments to honor their commitments to women’s rights and accountability.”
The delegates called for stronger political will, local-language outreach to raise awareness of legal rights, and international pressure to implement long-overdue reforms.
LWF actively engages with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) through capacity-building, advocacy, and theological reflection. Together with ecumenical partners, LWF annually convenes Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Trainings in Geneva. It also supports member churches, country programs and civil society partners in submitting shadow reports and leverages CEDAW and the Universal Periodic Review to press governments on gender-based violence, early marriage, and women’s rights.
