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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Rwanda - President Orders Release of Women & Girls Jailed for Abortions
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Women’s rights activists welcome the
<b><span style="color:red">presidential pardon of</span></b><span style="color:red">
<b>367 female prisoners</b> </span>as evidence of progress.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">By
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/samuel-okiror"><span style="color:blue">Samuel Okiror</span></a> – April 5, 2019<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The women are expected to be released immediately under the
<a href="https://www.primature.gov.rw/index.php?id=131&L=0&tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=793&tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=8feac1f6738f7d7458a6d93067a2c38c">
<span style="color:blue">presidential prerogative</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“Pursuant to the powers conferred upon him by the laws … the president of the republic informed the
cabinet meeting that he has exercised his prerogative of mercy and pardoned 367 persons convicted for the offences of abortion, complicity in abortion and infanticide,” read a statement published after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when the decision was
approved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“The government has proven once again that Rwanda is a cradle of women’s rights,” said Athanase Rukundo,
director of programmes at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/health"><span style="color:blue">Health</span></a> Development Initiative, a human rights organisation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“We are very pleased by the decision taken by the president, Paul Kagame, as it reflects the rights
and freedoms of women and girls enshrined under the constitution of Rwanda, regional and international human rights instruments, and particularly the
<a href="http://www.achpr.org/instruments/women-protocol/"><span style="color:blue">Maputo protocol</span></a>. It is a positive step, taken to realise the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls in Rwanda.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Asia Russell, executive director of the Health Global Access Project, said: “Rwanda is responding to
the public health and human rights crisis that is created as a result of criminalising access to abortion. Of course, those people never should have been the target of criminal proceedings in the first place, and much more must be done to ensure the bodily
integrity and human rights of women.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">In August last year, the government of
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/rwanda"><span style="color:blue">Rwanda</span></a> revised its penal code, which had previously imposed prison sentences on anyone having an abortion or assisting someone to terminate a pregnancy. Under the new law,
abortion is allowed in cases of rape, forced marriage, incest, or instances where the pregnancy poses a health risk to the mother or foetus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The new law requires that abortion be carried out after consultation with a doctor; in the past, the
final decision was taken by the courts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Figures published by the
<a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/abortion-rwanda"><span style="color:blue">Guttmacher Institute</span></a> in 2013 – the latest available – found that an estimated 60,000 abortions are carried out annually, almost all of which are unsafe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The institute also found that an estimated 22% of all unintended pregnancies end in abortions, while
63% result in unplanned births and 15% end in miscarriage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Tom Mulisa, executive director for the Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development, commended
the decision, but said more needed to be done to “address the sheer number of women and girls that continue to be imprisoned for seeking healthcare services”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Mulisa said: “Although we cannot comment on the particular cases, in general, there is an ongoing trend
of charging women for infanticide when that is factually incorrect. A study conducted by Great Lakes initiative found that women were being charged for infanticide and murder, while some were arrested for abortions when in fact they miscarried. Imprisoning
women for seeking a health service is a clear violation of their human rights.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/05/paul-kagame-orders-release-of-women-and-girls-jailed-over-abortion-in-rwanda">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/05/paul-kagame-orders-release-of-women-and-girls-jailed-over-abortion-in-rwanda</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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