Across Africa, Many Young Mothers Face Education Barriers hrw: Africa
Adolescent girls in nearly one-third of African countries who are pregnant face significant legal and policy barriers to continuing their formal education, Human Rights Watch said today. Most African governments, however, now protect education access through laws, policies, or measures for pregnant students or adolescent mothers.
At least 10 AU members have no laws or policies related to the retention of students who are pregnant or are adolescent mothers in schools. Many also lack or have inadequate policies to prevent and manage adolescent pregnancies, undermining children's right to sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to access reproductive health care and comprehensive sexuality education.
Criminal penalties for consensual sexual relations between adults or between children of similar ages violate fundamental rights to privacy and nondiscrimination, but also do little to affirmatively protect education rights for affected students, Human Rights Watch found.
Please see below for detailed findings and more information on the types of laws and policies across the African Union.
Human Rights Watch has classified the range of existing state measures into five categories:"continuation" policies,"re-entry" policies, no policies that positively protect girls' access to education, laws or practices that criminalize those who become pregnant outside of marriage, and school bans. In 10 countries, the absence of positive protections exposes students to irregular access to education at the school level, where school officials can decide what happens to a girl's education, or where discriminatory attitudes and social barriers pressure girls to drop out altogether.
Seychelles has recognized the particular barriers adolescents face in accessing sexual and reproductive health services, including parental consent requirements. The government has also taken additional steps to provide sexual and reproductive health education, make abortion services and contraception available and accessible for adolescents, and ensure youth are able to access such health services outside of school hours.
In February 2019, the Nigerien government repealed a 1978 directive that temporarily excluded girls who became pregnant from school and completely excluded them upon marriage. In August 2019, the government introduced a new policy that provides robust protections for girls' education. Article 8 of Joint Order No. 334 of August 22, 2019, affirmatively guarantees that a student may continue their studies in the event of pregnancy or marriage.
Article 307 of Mauritania's penal code criminalizes consensual sexual relations between a man and a woman outside of marriage. Violations can be punished with 100 lashes and 1 year in prison if the accused is unmarried. Flogging sentences are postponed until after a woman gives birth.
Countries in North Africa do not apply uniform criminal punishments for zina. In Algeria, the penal code does not criminalize consensual nonmarital sex per se, but the threat of prosecution under laws that target adultery present a barrier to adolescent youth.
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